A one-day visit to
Maymont is a multi-dimensional excursion. You can tour the
Victorian-Romanesque Maymont House, stroll through the Italian and Japanese
gardens, explore the carriage collection, drop by the children's farm, see the
indoor nature center and the outdoor wildlife habitats, ride the tram around
the estate or treat yourself to the luxury of a carriage ride.
Maymont stands, as
does much of Richmond, on land granted to William Byrd in 1675 by the English
crown and sold by his grandson to pay his debts in 1769. The land was
acquired by James Henry Dooley in 1886. At that time the Dooleys were living
on Franklin Street, a fitting in-town address for one of Richmond's most
affluent families. Because of the growing noise, pollution, crime and
overcrowding in the inner city, however, Dooley acquired 94 acres on the
outskirts of the city and later added 11 more.
The Dooleys’ 33-room
mansion on this acreage was designed in an early medieval style enjoying a
vogue during the last quarter of the 19th century. It is still decorated in
the height of fashion---for the 1890s. Furnishings were purchased by the
Dooleys on their travels around Europe and were chosen in a mixture of
historical and exotic styles.
The ornately
decorated rooms in this, one of the only Victorian estates open to the public
in Virginia, make it easy to understand why the late 19th century was called
the Gilded Age. In the library, the first room you see, there are several
unusual items. The Italian Renaissance winged-lion chair the Dooleys may have
found in Italy always elicits questions from visitors because of its unusual
design. The ceilings feature such Victorian touches as stenciling and
strapwork. Stenciling, which originally adorned modest homes in the form of
folk art, was later adopted and embellished by the more sophisticated.
Strapwork, which had its origins in fine Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, is a
ceiling design done with wooden moldings.
Both the pink and
blue drawing rooms utilize French decorative styles. The former is decorated
with Louis XV furniture to complement the rococo, 18th-century French
architectural details, such as the ceiling frescoes and the 14-karat
gold-plated chandelier and sconces. The drawing room has a parquet floor,
highly touted in an 1884 edition of Godey's Lady's Book. It is said
that Mrs. Dooley made visitors put on flannel shoe covers to protect her
floor. The stained-glass windows demonstrate another favorite decoration of
the Victorian period. The blue drawing room is done in the neoclassical style
and has Louis XVI furnishings.
The dining room
walls are covered with painted canvas "tapestries," very popular during the
Gilded Age. The porcelain is copied from Rutherford B. Hayes's White House
china. The enormous, ornately carved mahogany and rosewood cabinet was made
in France in the 1850s and displayed at the Paris Universal Exposition.
You'll also see the
upstairs bedrooms. The most interesting is the Swan Room filled with
furniture featuring swan motifs. A large swan bed competes for attention with
a table made of silver and narwhal (a single tusk whale) by Tiffany and Co.
In addition to
turning the main house into a display of Victoriana, the many dependencies at
Maymont have been turned to good use. The first dependency to be built may
predate the mansion. Now called the "mews," it serves as a gift shop. The
carriage house contains a sizeable collection of 19th-century horse-drawn
vehicles. Carriage rides are given from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. on weekends April
through October, weather permitting. The old hay barn houses a nature center.
There are also wildlife habitats on the
grounds. The most noticeable member of the grasslands community is the
American bison, a species at one time native to Virginia. Another habitat is
the black bear exhibit, located in an old quarry and pond area. The forest
edge has its own denizens---raccoons, foxes, chipmunks, elk and deer. A
variety of owls and hawks populate the bird of prey exhibit. Maymont's aviary
includes wild turkey and many types of waterfowl. Domestic animals are at the
children's farm.
The gardens of Maymont should not be missed; indeed, they are the primary reason
many visitors return. The first of the diverse gardening styles to be observed
is the English pastoral landscape that surrounds the house. The objective of
this style was to make the grounds look natural even when planted with trees and
shrubs that were not indigenous to the area. The Dooleys imported 185 varieties
of exotic trees from six continents.
Between 1907 and 1910 the Dooleys built a three-tiered Italian garden. The
garden's multi-level terraces are enhanced by statuary, a formal cascade
fountain with terraced pools, a wisteria-covered pergola or arbor plus a
promenade overlooking the secret garden.
The formal cascade fountain contrasts with the naturalistic waterfall flowing
into the Japanese garden, a renovation done in 1976. The current garden
includes trained and pruned trees and shrubs, raked sand pools, meandering
paths, stone lanterns and delicate bridges.
The Maymont grounds are open 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. daily November through
March and 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. April through October. Exhibits are open NOON
to 5:00 P.M. Tuesday through Sunday from September through May and 10:00 A.M. to
5:00 P.M. Tuesday through Sunday, June through August. The last tour of Maymont
House begins at 4:30 P.M. Donations are requested. For additional information
or group reservations call (804) 358-7166.
Directions: From I-95 and
I-64, take Exit 78, The Boulevard and travel south for two miles to The
Boulevard’s end at the Columbus statue. Follow Maymont signs through Byrd Park
and into the parking area at the Hampton Street Gate. If you want to enter
Maymont near the Children’s Farm, turn right at the Columbus statue, then make a
left onto Pump House Drive at the Carillon,
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