Twin Oaks Plantation

All but 175± acres of Twin Oaks Plantation is located in Thomas County, Georgia, with this small balance in Grady County. With its roster of neighbors and its proximity to downtown Thomasville and Tallahassee, a Red Hills plantation address doesn’t get better than that of Twin Oaks. Twin Oaks is surrounded by Melrose, Sinkola, Beverly, Longpine, Winnstead, and Pebble Hill plantations. 

Downtown Thomasville is just a five-minute ride from the gates of the plantation, and the most vibrant part of Tallahassee, Bradfordville, is only a 20-minute drive in the opposite direction down Highway 319. The Thomasville Municipal Airport is about 20 minutes from Twin Oaks and has a 6,004’ runway for private aviation. Tallahassee International Airport is 40 minutes from the plantation offering both private and public air transportation. 

Located between Thomasville, Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida, the Red Hills Region is a 300,000-acre area known for its rolling hills, red clay soils, and diverse ecosystems. It had long been a winter destination for wealthy northerners who came for the mild weather and quail hunting. Sportsmen found that quail flourished in the region and the fast burst of a covey rise was an excitement beyond comparison. It motivated these early landowners to pull together the resources to study and detail the best land management practices for these upland ecosystems and due to their efforts, the Red Hills is revered today as one of the “Last Great Places” in rural America. What it offers for a wing-shooting enthusiast simply cannot be found elsewhere.   

The cities anchoring this block of land offer great entertainment and cultural events. Thomasville is a charming southern town and was recently labeled the second best historic small town in the country by USA Today. Its original bricked roads have been uncovered along many of the downtown streets that take visitors to delightful dining options, boutiques, and shops featuring everything from high-end sporting attire to locally-made handcrafted goods. Tallahassee is Florida’s capital city and is home to three universities, museums, two large hospitals, and a variety of shopping and dining options.  

The Red Hills region has a humid subtropical climate and offers long warm summers and the most pleasant and mild of winters. Between November and March, the daily high temperatures average 68 degrees and low temperatures on average are 43 degrees. Rainfall usually peaks in March and during the summer months, with an average annual rainfall of 53 inches.  

When it comes to shaping the entire culture of the Red Hills region, the lands of Twin Oaks Plantation are essentially the foundation of what made, and quite possibly saved, the landscape of this 300,000-acre region.

Charles M. Chapin of New Jersey was drawn to the beauty and recreational opportunities of the Thomasville area. His mother, Salome Hanna Chapin Jones, owned Elsoma Plantation. In 1891, Chapin purchased the old “Jones Plantation.” He owned the property for five years and sold to his uncle, Howard Melville Hanna of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1896. Many historians mark this sale as the impetus of what shaped the region. Over 150,000 acres of Red Hills plantations can be traced back to Mr. Hanna, of the M.A. Hanna Mining Company, and the influence he had in bringing family, friends, and business associates to the area.

Mr. Hanna renamed his new plantation Melrose and soon after acquired Pebble Hill and Winnstead plantations, eventually amassing 14,000 contiguous acres. In 1901, he gifted property to his children. His daughter, Kate Benedict, received Pebble Hill, and his son, Howard Melville, Jr., received Melrose. In time, the younger Mr. Hanna further expanded his holdings to 8,000 acres with his purchase of Sinkola Plantation. Melrose was developed into a grand plantation with luxurious appointments. In the early 1930s, Mr. Hanna arranged the first private showing of Gone With the Wind at Melrose’s Showboat Theater before the Atlanta premiere. Upon his death, Sinkola and Melrose were left to his widow and two of his daughters. Eventually, the lands would be split. Mrs. Warren Bicknell, Jr. received Sinkola, and Mrs. Julian Castle Bolton received Melrose. Mrs. Bolton’s daughters would eventually develop their own places on the Melrose plantation lands, with daughter Betsy Schafer naming her portion Twin Oaks and building a home there. The 40 acres surrounding the historic plantation home and headquarters of the original Melrose were sold around the same time.

Main House: The plantation’s main house is situated on a hillside with both pastoral and mature pine views. The 5,735± square foot traditional home was built in 1981 and has three bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom, and two additional half baths. The home features an indoor pool, a lanai, a first floor master, two-car garage, very nice enclosed two-run kennel, and generator. The arrival court features the remaining of two grand live oaks that were the inspiration for Twin Oaks’ name.

Historic Front Gate House/Staff House: Dating back to the early nineteen hundreds, the gate house is located at the northern entrance and is a great example of what the historic staff quarters looked like over a century ago. It is currently used for staff housing.

Additional Staff Houses: There are two additional houses for staff. Both are located near the main plantation office complex.  

Other Improvements: Other Improvements include a plantation office, large equipment barn, five-run kennel, a two-stall horse barn with an enclosed tack room with water, electric, and a small woodstove, a raised hay barn, horse feeding shelters, a garage, picnic shelter with fireplace at the lake, excellent roads and numerous concrete and steel bridges.  

In 2019, Twin Oaks was enrolled into Georgia’s Conservation Use Assessment Program and Georgia’s Forest Land Protection Program in order to achieve more favorable property taxes. The 2019 property taxes are expected to be right around $22,000.

Twin Oaks is an excellent all-around hunting and fishing property. The landscape diversity at Twin Oaks, and its maturity, offers a wide variety of quality hunting opportunities. The property has several nice hardwood drains running throughout that create lots of edge and transitional habitat for wildlife. Needless to say, the turkey and deer hunting is very good. 

With nearly seventy percent of the property in upland pines, a lot of the land is in quintessential South Georgia pine forests that beg for bird dogs to be traversing it. The current owner maintained an active quail-hunting program on Twin Oaks until her age prohibited it. The land still follows several of the best management practices for quail with regular burning, blocking, and maintenance of fallow fields. As a result, in addition to being surrounded by other actively managed plantations, restarting the quail-hunting program would lead to quick results. If an owner wants more quail hunting, there is a very interesting outside opportunity to discuss. 

In addition, there are four wildlife fields totaling 50± acres near the main home that are ideal for dove fields. The property also has a gorgeous 12± acre lake providing a quality fishery. The maturity and volume of timber on this property is a big component of why it is such an interesting all-around hunting property.