The Farm that Became a Park: JB Wright’s Roots and Legacy
JB Wright had a big decision to make. In 2020, plans for a 150-home neighborhood were ready for his family’s ancestral tobacco farm. The prime real estate along Cass Holt Road was ripe for development. But, instead of developing his land, Wright made a bold choice. He chose to sell the land to the Town for the future Eagles Landing Park.
JB Wright ensured that the fields in Holly Springs where he learned to hunt, fish, and dream would remain open spaces for the community he calls home. This is the story of a man who safeguarded the roots planted by his forefathers, helping preserve them as a green space for generations to come.
500 Miles to Home
Wright’s family lineage traces back, through the Town’s founding families, to Scottish ancestors who moved south from Hillsborough. They settled in Holly Springs and began a tobacco farm on land off Cass Holt Road, believed to be the first tobacco farm in Wake County. His family tree includes the Mims family, who ran a pharmacy at the corner of Avent Ferry and Center streets, and Texanna Branch. After her first husband passed away, Texanna married Town founder G.B. Alford and moved from the farm on Cass Holt Road into the Leslie Alford Mims House.
Though Wright was raised in Pittsburgh, his soul was always in North Carolina. Vacations and holidays meant a 500-mile trek south, in a car without air conditioning, to his grandparents' homes in Holly Springs and Apex.
Wright’s childhood memories are a vivid tapestry of small-town life. He recalls staying with his grandfather in a cabin on the tobacco farm that is now being transformed into Eagles Landing Park.
“Life couldn’t get any better,” he said. “We’d wake up in the morning, catch fish, and my grandfather would fry them up right there on the dock.”
During the 1990s and early 2000s, he also spent nights in the legendary Leslie Alford Mims House with his family and his great-uncle, Ed Mims. He recalls the home's drafty nature before modern development brought streetlights to the area.
“Back then, the Town was much darker than it is now,” he said. “If one person had to use the only central bathroom in the house, the whole family went with them.”
From the third floor of that house, his father used to claim he could see all the way to Raleigh, a testament to a time when the land had been cleared of the trees that have since grown back.
A Choice for the Future: Eagles Landing and Mims Parks
After graduating from college, Wright felt a natural pull back to the Town of his summers. He moved into his grandparents’ house and built a life in Holly Springs. But as the Town grew, the family’s nearby tobacco farm faced a crossroads.
Wright was in the process of developing the property, with plans for 150 homes. However, a moment of reflection and the passage of a Town parks bond made him pause. He realized that, while the Town had plenty of houses, it was in need of a sanctuary.
“The Town didn’t come to me; I came to them,” Wright said.
He chose to sell the land for Eagles Landing Park to the Town, as he had the Mims Park land in downtown Holy Springs. For Wright, the decision was personal. He wanted his own grandchildren to be able to walk the same earth he once roamed with his loyal boxer, Jake.
“We had enough homes out there, but the park was so needed,” he said. “If I could get this deal done, I could take the grandkids back to the farm.”
Preserving the Spirit of Holly Springs
Today, as Holly Springs grows into a bustling destination, JB Wright still sees the small Town he loves. He sees it in the familiar faces on the sidewalks and the stories shared over dinner rather than a television screen.
By preserving the land at Eagles Landing, Wright hasn't just saved acreage; he has saved a piece of history. Thanks to his vision, the echoes of his grandfather frying fish on the dock will live on in the laughter of children playing in the park for generations to come.