Buckingham County Houses: View Mountain (a. k. a View Mount)
View Mountain (a. k. a. View Mount). Courtesy Historic Buckingham.
On April 29, 1937, Rosa G. Williams surveyed the Buckingham County house View Mountain for the Virginia Historical Inventory. She described the location as “5 miles east of Spouses Corner on Route #60; thence south .1 mile on Route #623; thence 1.5 miles east on Route #634; thence south .3 mile on private road to the house.”
Dating the house to the late 1700s, the owners included the Bolling family (about 1775), a Mr. Martin (about 1804), William [Guthrie] (about 1835), Poindexter [Shepard] (1849), and Henry Wise [Shepard] (1909). Due to the lack of deeds preserved in the county courthouse, Mrs. Williams had to estimate the dates of the owners.
She went on to describe the house:
“View Mountain” is located at the foot of Willis Mountain, the view being very lovely from the backyard. There is an old board fence surrounding the yard which contains thirteen very large boxwood and several original oak trees.
The original house consisted of only two rooms that about 1852 more rooms were added later. Now the house consists of eight rooms; the original being constructed of heart pine put together with wooden pegs and shop made nails. The rooms are all plastered with very wide baseboard.
Mrs. Williams went on to note the houses historical significance:
This property was part of the grant originally given the famous Bolling Family of Virginia. An old road once passed through this place and the present owner says he is often heard his father speak of seeing slaves go by with hogsheads of their masters tobacco drawn by oxen on the way to market.
If anyone knows more about View Mountain (a.k.a. View Mount), please comment below.
slate river ramblings . . . . 
The Virginia Historical Inventory surveys are full of errors — large and small. Thanks, L. D., for letting readers know that you have a copy corrected by family members.
Joanne
Joanne, I think the 1937 survey had a number of misspellings on names and the property name should be View Mount. . My records indicate the property was known as View Mount and the property was owned by the Guthrie and the Shepard families and some interest by the Spencer family and others. . Please note the posting in The Courthouse Burned Vol.1 pg. 154. The property is about 2-3 miles from the mountain and almost on the line with Cumberland County. The property was acquired by Edward M. Shepard from William G. Shepard in 1941 and Edward M. Shepard had acquired other properties in the area that joined this property from other family members.. Edward M. Shepard left this property to his daughter Ethelyn M. Shepard and she eventually sold the property to a Mr. Asal in Cumberland County.
Thanks for these comments. I dig a little deeper into the discrepancies.
Joanne
Joanne, I checked the original 1937 document and Mrs. Williams had the spellings and the name of the property as you had originally stated. I have a corrected copy of that document made by a family member so noting the correct spellings and property name. These corrections agree with the Pennington and Scott book.
My mother grew up behind Willis Mountain. She says that it was called View Mountain because of the Fire Tower that was on top. The tower was removed when they began mining. Her and her siblings and cousins would climb the mountain on Sundays to get to the tower. The CCCC men built the tower and the access road. Her dad was in the CCCC.
She thinks this is the house that had a pool and the owner let them swim. There was a small house near it and one morning when they were walking to the bus stop they found the occupant deceased in his vehicle.
She was born in 1942 and was a Blake. Her grandparents and cousins were Catletts.
Terri,
Many thanks for your comment. You are correct, the men of the CCC worked at Willis Mountain. I’ve had written about their contribution in the past. Search the Slate River Ramblings archive for posts.
Joanne