By 
Holton is along US75, about 26 miles north of Topeka.
The Jackson County Courthouse in Holton.
1920 is carved into the building.
If there’s a Mayberry in Kansas, it’s this town of about 3,200. At least that’s the warm feeling that fell over me on Saturday evening as I walked around the town square. Maybe the beauty of falling light on the perfect late-spring evening was what won me over, but it felt like home here.
Wandering around the square, I thought of Bill Bryson’s search for the quintessential American small town. Bryson, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, wrote The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America.
The Lost Continent has one of my favorite quotes about our state.
Bryson writes… “I had always thought one of the worst things anyone could say to you was, “‘We’re transferring you to Kansas, son.'”
I love that line – on so many levels. But it’s especially great because Bryson is … from Iowa.
Anyway, I wasn’t in town very long, but communities can attract or repel you, and in Holton, I just felt happy to be there.
Ginger Snips welcomes people with its pleasing colors, shaded lawn chairs, a laundry tub of flowers.
All these buildings are on the town square.
The State Bank of Holton building now houses an insurance business.
The U.S. Post Office in Holton.
The east side of the square catches the evening sun.
I go to Holton once a month now to see my doctor & have been going there on a regular basis for over 2 years now——–& most all the people on the square welcome me each month as I shop there——-it is like I’m an old freind when I come into their stores each month! They have a really neat dime store there——–with even a soda fountain!
I buy greeting cards there each month!
Holton has a few antique shops & second hand stores- & a really nice
quilting shop——-it is a nice little town to shop in— & each month when I go there I always leave several dollars!!!!!!!!
But the business owners seem to appreciate my business also!
I just had a link emailed to me by a friend from Jackson County. Cheryl is right about the feeling of the business square in Holton, it does feel welcoming, friendly and mellow. Holton is lucky to have most of its architectural heritage still intact. The spreading shade trees on the courthouse square and along the streets say, “We are not a fly-by-night kind of place. We’ve got a story to tell and business to do. We’re glad you are here.”
Holton’s Antique Mall on the SE corner of the square closed it’s doors around the first of the year—– I was very sorry to see them close!
The Holton Main Street Facebook group has a gallery of photos of Christmas store windows and town square decorations. There is a snowman studio photographer, a reindeer contemplating a laptop computer, a rappelling Santa and American Gothic snow couple.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=540026604#/photo.php?pid=1054334&op=2&o=all&view=all&subj=51155125497&aid=-1&oid=51155125497&id=835966664