Michael Bolick learned about the “old way of life” by living in a 191-year-old cabin for 15 years. But the owner of the oldest dovetail cabin in Duluth and possibly all of Gwinnett County is ready to move on.
Bolick is selling the three acres of land historic Knox Cabin rests on to a developer, who will use the lot to provide road access to a planned 22-acre subdivision. The cabin — named after John Knox, the first mayor of Duluth, who was elected in 1880, and his descendants who resided in it — could soon fade into the Gwinnett city’s past.
The Duluth Historical Society wants to save the cabin, hoping to collect $70,000 in donations to move and maintain it. Bolick has already agreed to donate the cabin to the society, hoping it’s able to preserve it “even if only one person cares about it.”
“We have a great deal of passion for our history in Duluth, and in my heart of hearts, I’m not going to allow (the cabin) to be torn down,” said Candace Morgan, president of the Duluth Historical Society. “And I don’t think it will be torn down. It’s just a matter of getting the funds together in a very short period of time.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Built by the Herrington family in the early-to-mid 1800s, Knox Cabin is at least 191 years old. The society believes it could have been built before 1830, which would make it not only the oldest dovetail cabin — held together with interlocking wooden joints — in Duluth but all of Gwinnett County.
Besides the cabin’s age, its storied past also makes it worth saving, Morgan said. The cabin makes an appearance in the story of the 1922 Simpson murders, in which two brothers accused of transporting liquor in a Ford Model T car during prohibition were gunned down near the cabin by a Gwinnett County deputy.
Bud Knox, an 89-year-old descendant of Duluth’s first mayor, estimated that his family took over the cabin in the late 1800s. For about a century, generations of the Knox family continued to reside on the property. At one point, the family had more than 200 acres that sprawled down Ga. 120, he said.
Bud Knox said he lived in the cabin for about a decade, from shortly before World War II until he married in 1952. He recalled sitting around a coal-burning stove in the kitchen on cold winter nights and his family raising chickens and hogs. “Personally speaking, I would like to leave (the cabin) where it’s at,” he said.
Bolick lived in the cabin from 1985 to 2000, recalling it withstanding a 1996 tornado that knocked trees down to the ground.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“I lived a very unusual life, living the old way,” Bolick chuckled over the phone. “Some people admired me and some probably thought I was a kook for living there, but I enjoyed every minute of it.”
Bolick’s parents, Fred and Betty, purchased the property in the late 1970s. They fixed it up and resided in the adjacent ranch home, both of which Bolick inherited in 2017 after his parents died.
Bolick lived in the ranch house until last July. He has since commuted from his Carnesville home to the Duluth property, managing the upkeep on Knox Cabin and the other house.
“I just can’t handle all the properties,” said Bolick, a retired musician who taught music lessons in the cabin. “I don’t want to mow seven or eight acres of grass every week. It’s too expensive to have all this.”
The Providence Group, the developer to which Bolick is selling the property, did not respond to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s request for comment. But Morgan said the developer has supported the Duluth Historical Society’s efforts in moving the cabin by grading the land around the cabin so it can more easily be moved.
While Duluth officials cannot afford to front the moving cost themselves, Morgan said, they have thrown their support behind relocating it.
The Gwinnett Historical Society opposes the destruction of the old home.
“A lot of people will probably say, ‘So what?’ (if it’s torn down), but if you ever see the joy in children’s faces when they explore these things ... you can’t match that unless you go into the cabin,” said Diane McCormic, preservation committee chair for the Gwinnett Historical Society.
The Duluth Historical Society hopes to place the Knox Cabin near the Town Green in downtown Duluth. It could bring in tourists and serve as a place to educate the future generations of Gwinnett County, Morgan said.
“It is in threat of being destroyed, but it will be very hard for those tractors to tear down that building with me stretched across the driveway of it,” Morgan said.
Events in Knox Cabin history
About the Author
