Colonel S. A. Wales built a house on this site in 1833. Robert A. Toombs (1810-1885), a United States Congressman, Senator, and Secretary of State of the Confederate States, purchased it in 1879 as a summer home. General Toombs sold the property to Judge Logan E. Bleckley (1827-1907) in 1884. The original house was destroyed by fire in 1897, and the present structure was built on the same site immediately afterward. Judge Bleckley served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1875 to 1880 and as Chief Justice from 1887 to 1894. At times, other members of the Court met with Judge Bleckley here for conferences on its work. A unique figure in Georgia judicial history and one of the most outstanding Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, Judge Bleckley died at his residence here on March 7, 1907.