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JoLee Gregory Spears
(This page was last updated )
Golden Hills“Fire struck Golden Hills at 6:50 pm on a cold February night in 2003”
Drakes Branch, Charlotte County, VA
Photographs owned and submitted by Frances McGowan
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37° 00' 52"N, -78° 35'
20"W
TopoZone location furnished by Bruce Hall
See "T. T. Boulding" on Section 9 of 1864 Gilmer map
For a span of two hundred forty-three years, Golden
Hills served as the homestead of the distinguished Bouldin family. The original Golden Hills was built about 1744. The recent 1 ½-story house was
begun around 1810 and completed in 1854. Thomas Bouldin The Elder with his family settled on
the tract in 1744, then in part of Brunswick County. Golden Hills fell in Lunenburg County in 1746 and in
Charlotte County in 1765. Bouldin
was active in county affairs and served in the French and Indian War. After the death of Thomas Bouldin The Elder in 1783,
a property division left the Golden Hills home portion to son
Wood Bouldin. After the death in 1800 of Major Wood Bouldin, a Revolutionary
War veteran, Golden Hills passed into the hands of his widow,
Joanna. In 1815, she transferred
the home to her son Thomas Tyler Bouldin (I). Thomas
Tyler Bouldin (I) was reared in a setting of music, culture, and education
and became a highly respected lawyer and judge. Golden Hills by 1847 passed to Thomas Tyler
Bouldin (II), lawyer and educator. Thomas
Tyler Bouldin operated Golden Hills Academy for several years,
beginning in 1853. Golden
Hills saw various structural changes. Upon
the death in 1891 of Thomas Tyler Bouldin (II), the home and surrounding
farm passed to his widow, Fannie Bouldin, who enjoyed a lifetime right
to place. Upon her passing, it went to the “unmarried
daughters.” As the daughters lived away from the home, their brother
Claiborne Bouldin continued to live there and served as caretaker. In 1976, family papers and books went to The Virginia
Historical Society. Colonial
Williamsburg purchased Joanna Tyler Bouldin's spinet. As part of a lawsuit, the family agreed to sell the Golden
Hills home with twenty-five acres to Thomas Tyler Bouldin, son
of Claiborne. The son
continued to reside there as long as he could, and in 1987 sold Golden
Hills and the twenty-five acres to Richard and Sheila Dunaway. “Fire struck Golden Hills at
6:50 pm on a cold February night in 2003” The fire of 2003 heavily damaged
the roof of the 1850's section and gutted the older section. See The SouthSider article
by Gerald Tate Gilliam for Bouldin family information and other rich
sources. Gilliam, Gerald Tate. "Fire
Damages Golden Hills." The SouthSider, Volume
XXII, |