Boykins, VA

Boykins is a Southampton County town near the North Carolina line, where Routes 35 and 186 meet the roads between the Blackwater River country and eastern Virginia. John Boykin acquired land south of the present town on the road to Severn, North Carolina, and the settlement grew into a rail- and farm-oriented community. Boykins incorporated in 1884, and the town's older buildings still carry that nineteenth-century outline.

Beaton-Powell House, built in 1857 and listed on the National Register in 2008, is the clearest landmark of that earlier period. Today Boykins Town Hall, council meetings, newsletters, and the local fire and rescue organization supply the practical civic framework, while farms and regional highways shape the surrounding landscape. The town's position near the state line keeps it connected to both Southampton County and nearby North Carolina communities. Boykins has the scale of a small town, but its story is tied to a specific crossroads: a tract acquired by John Boykin, a settlement built around roads and agriculture, and a civic life that still gathers around the same local center.