Dunnington Mansion, also known as Poplar Hill, as well as various other names during its history, is an abandoned property located in Farmville, Virginia. The house hasn’t been lived in since the turn of the century and has such started to fall apart.
The History Of Dunnington Mansion
In 1748, Richard Woodson purchased 1152 acres of land from King George II. He built a small, four-room wooden house which he named Poplar Hill.
The estate was then passed down through two generations, then in 1840, Francis Wood built the original brick portion of the property. This was a completely separate structure from the original wooden house built by Richard Woodson.
The house was passed down through the family one more time before being sold off to Captain John H. Knight Jr. in 1860, ending the 100+ years of single-family ownership.
Captain John H. Knight Jr.
John H. Knight Jr. served with Company K of the Third Virginia Cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia; he would later become a lawyer and planter. Because of Knight’s career as a planter, the property became a plantation, and numerous structures to house the slaves were built.
The estate was then passed down to India Knight, daughter of John, in 1892. India’s husband, Walter Dunnington, was a prominent tobacco baron, and it is he who the house is named after today.
Tobacco Baron Walter Dunnington.
In 1897, 5 years after receiving the property, Mr. Dunnington extensively renovated the house, creating a sprawling mansion. He added a further four rooms to the existing property, a huge tower, and a stately front entrance.
While Walter Dunnington died in 1922, India lived on the property until she died in 1960 at the age of 103. By then, the house had been her home for 99 years, only a few months shy of a century.
India with her sisters on the porch of Dunnington Mansion.
After the death of India, Dunnington Mansion went to auction under sealed bid and was purchased by Mr. Glen K. Bolt and his wife Freeda. The land was logged and turned into a large working cattle farm. Many barns and outbuildings were also added to the land to help the farm function.
Dunnington Mansion during its time as a farm.
Glen also made numerous upgrades to the main house, updating the electricity, converting the coal furnace to oil, and modernizing the plumbing.
Glen and Freeda passed the property to their son Nelson, who continued to operate the farm until 2000. However, in 1998, Nelson was approached by local investors who were interested in buying the property.
The investors told him they wanted to turn the land into a championship golf course; when he sold it in 2000, he believed the house would become the grand centerpiece of the newly built Manor Golf Club and would be well looked after.
Dunnington Mansion Today
Unfortunately, despite the golf course being built in 2004, Dunnignton Mansion was completely neglected. The house has remained empty ever since and is now in major need of investment to prevent further damage from occurring.
Since 2021, the Dunnington Mansion Foundation, a non-profit organization, was formed to preserve the history of Poplar Hill and the mansion itself from falling into further decay.
In 2023, Sotheby’s International Realty put the property up for sale at $12,500,000; this included Dunnington Mansion and 766 acres of land surrounding The Manor Golf Club.
Hopefully, somebody in the near future with very deep pockets will manage to save the building before it’s too late. This would be the perfect spot if you fancy a quiet life in the country, playing golf numerous times per week.
If you like Dunnington Mansion, check out Borley Rectory, another house that was abandoned and then later destroyed.
