This house was built by Mr. & Mrs. Louis Dugas, French refugees from santo Domingo, in the early 1790's. Here, until 1810, Mrs. Dugas conducted the boarding school, which was attended by many of the daughters of Georgia's outstanding early settlers. In this house was born Louis Alexander Dugas(1808-98) who became one of the state's most distinguished physicians and surgeons. Educated at home, he studied medicine under Dr. John Dent, later was graduated from the University of Maryland, and after spending some time in Europe as a student, returned to settle in Augusta, Georgia. A founder of the Medical College of Georgia, Dr. Dugas was for many years professor of surgery there. He was president of the Medical Society of Augusta and pf the Medical association of Georgia, and from 1851 to 1858 edited the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal. During the war between the states, he served as Volunteer and Consulting Surgeon of Medical Hospitals.

When the wealthy merchant Charles Bolton bought the house sometimes in the early 1800s, he added the upper story. Frank Colley, Esq. added in a newspaper column that the Bolton sons were great sportsmen "and one never seemed to pass the place without seeing horses, grooms and stylish vehicles". The side door under the small portico is still called "the riding door."

In later years, this house was occupied by Dr. Thomas Dunwoody, distinguished Presbyterian Minister, pastor of the Washington Presbyterian Church, who added the columns in the 1860's, and later moved to Roswell, GA, where he performed the wedding ceremony for Miss Bullock and Mr. Roosevelt, the parents of President Theodore Roosevelt.

For many years, this house was occupied by the family of John Callaway, Commissioner of Roads and Revenue for Wilkes County.

In 1963, Mr and Mrs George Normandy bought the house and restored it with loving care. They gave it the name Pleasant Shade in memory of the ancestral Virginia home of Mrs. Normandy. The architectural details on windows and doors on the porch are striking. The massive cornices are hand-chiseled.

This house is a part of National Register District No.1