.- - - - I.. .,SiXi?TiON LL- - k on.. 7 E~ceil.~t k3 i;ooa 7 io;. r; *..r.,r.tp., iSh01TiON ~ -. Unexpolcd , . I,,. ,i o,,,., -1(Cllnrn voc,

.".,,,., r;~muiinc ciapbo~rcicdiarm dwelling =its ;-iacidi;. in iiie rolling nills , i Gdochi,~od County ovcrlook~ : the broad :la: Lotto;? iands or' cric upper 'ISivr Surrounded by <.,,,enf ic Ids and woodlands, solling rlall's sectuig ililii changed little since thc days of its buiidcr.

'Y:ie .tppearance of the house, however, has cvolved over the .,,cars to its ' ;~rcsrnCstate. AS originally constructed for William Boi; .,.g, tile house was a two-story Structurc with a side hall plan. Its outside dimensions were 34 oy 22 feet, Uy 1803 it had acquired an 18 by 18 foot one-story wing on che east end. An 1815 insurance policy of the Mutual Assurance ' Society of Richmond shows that by then the house had received a two-story ... 1 a~~dltlonon, its west side, causing the main part of the house to appear 1 zlcios t synime trical. Thc house was extensively remodeled sometime between 1 1845 and 1861 by Mary Uolling and iier husband Richard Skipwith. During I il~eremodeling the stair was removcd from the hall and placed in a new I 3rojrcting tower near the center of the house's north side. X one-story I wing was put on the end, and the east wing was raised to two full storie 1 A conservatory was also added to the end of the east wing. The pitch of !' the roof was lowered and the cornice was changed. In 1947 Bolling Hall was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Dwight A. Xles who wl found the house in poor repair ixd being used as a barn. The Files -I carefuily renovated the house a;ld replaced the tower with a two-story ?or& with enclosed upper level. They also built a new stair in C hall, removed the conservatory, and put a one-story wing in its place. Despite the many changes that have taken place in the house, it retains.. . C) much of its early sash, early'beaded clapboards,"and"sactions of. the original Flemish bond foundation. . . ~. .,. ,. . ,

3ie interior trim of Bolling Hall is quite fine but difficult to date. Z ;iie main room in the oldest szrtion of' the house is handsomely outfitted wl with a paneled end wall, consisting of a chimney piece with molded shelf and architrave surround. The chimney piece 1s. flanked by fluted pilasters and raised paneled doors. At the top of the wall is a wall-of-Troy cornice which surrounds the entire room. The room above the main room ' also has a paneled end wall, but it is treated in a more simple fashion. aecause the end walls in the circa 1815 addition are virtually identical in style to those in the earlier section it is open to speculation if aL1 the paneling dates from the same period, or if that in the addition was copied from the trim in the earlier section. In either case, all of the paneling is in the style of the eighteenth century rather than the nineteenth.

! 1 As late as 1879 Bolling Hall had retained its early brick kicchen, brick : smokehouse, and a number of slave cabins. ALL .of tliiser oarly..outbuildings 1 have disappeared, however. On a hill imediately to the southwest of the house is the old walled Bolling graveyard.

I ~ ! PERIOD (Clleck One or More sa ApproprlnloJ i i-I Pvo-Coiurnbion: ,J 16th Conlury ,';< 18th Cmn?ury - iL, iL, 20th C.otury ! ~ 1.1 15rh Ccnlvry i.2 17th Century Xi 19th Century . I : IPCCIFIC DATE151 tll Anoilcable nnrlKnnWrll I

I 0. ,,,,,,,,,,,, (Chock on0 or More 0s Approprloro) ...., 4 .. . I Abor igtn.1 Ei ~duc~,~~. C Pol,,ic.l . . .. I a Pr.his,o.ic .. . E"Q~...,,"~ a Re!~~~o~/Phi. i ' 0 Histdrlc ~ , . . Industry ' - - .... . Iosophy . . a 1 [IAgriculture .. .- 0 l.;.'"tio" science I 2'3 Architsct~re Landscope ;? Sculpfure Art Architecture 0 Socool/Human. ~it~..t~.. 3 commerc. i,ori.,n i ;7 Communications Mi!itory I C Theater 0 Con,srr.,ti~n Mvaic . 0 Tronsporl~~i~~

STATEMENT OF 51CN1FICANCE The ilolling Hall lands were first acquired in1714 by John Bolling,.Sr., son of the immigrant , and a grandson of ; daughter of Pocohontas. John Bolling Sr.'s grandson William inherited the 1 land in 1757, and it was he who built,the earliest portion of the present house around the third quarter 6f the eighteenth century. William Bolling i i married his first cousin, , daughter of of ! Curles. Two of the children of this union: William Albert (born 1797) 1 anu Nary (born 1809), were born deaf. Congenital deafness has appeared in

8 the Dolling family before, more particularly in the children of William Dolling's uncle Thomas Bolling of Cobbs in Chesterfield County who had his children educated in Edinburgh under the direction of Thomas Briarwood, a noted pioneer educator of the deaf. Since William Bolling was unwilling to send his children abroad, he was pleased to learn in 1812 that John Brianuood, grandson of the famous teacher, announced his intentions of I establishing a school for the deaf in Philadelphia. The school failed to I j develop ,so Boiling, brought, Briayood, to Bolling Hall where briar wood^ taught not only ~olling'sdeaf children but his hearing children es well. 1 Briamood proved to be such agifted teacher that parents of other deaf 1 children requested that their children be allowed to come to Bolling Hall I and learn under him. Bolling was unwilling to turn Bollins Iiall into an institution, but consented to convert the old house it Cobbs, which-he ! i inherited from his mother, into a formal scnool. Cobbs then became the i first school for the educationof the deaf in the United States. ! I Bolling Hall is thus significant for its early associations with the deaf education in this county. It is also the earliest remaining house connected/ with this important early Virginia family since Cobbs was destroyed by fire i in 1829. Bolling Hall further survives as one of the few remaining i colonial plantation houses of the upper James region; one that retains much of its original fabric, as well as its unspoiled rural setting. "Maryland Was at One Time Considered in Connection with the Location of i the First School for the Deaf in the United States," Maryland Bulletin,I Frederick, Nd., Vol. LXI, No. 3, (December 1940).

--A LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COOROINb1ES

V, rn

' in - z In 4 x C n -I 0 Z VI

As the designated State Liaison Officer for the Na- I hereby certify that this property is included in the Netionsl Reg& ter. 89-665).I hereby nomtnale this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated nccordlng to the criteria and set

level of significance of this nomination is:

. .. ,- i~

Keeper of The National Register

hte I Date 16/7/ 1 1 kj--_ _ -- .--- ?A . hv. .