In 1886, James and Sallie Dooley acquired farmland on the banks of the James River, where they planned to build a new home. Their architect, Edgerton Stewart Rogers (1860-1901), born and educated in Rome, combined the Romanesque Revival style with the picturesque Queen Anne for the Dooley residence. By 1893, the Dooleys were living in their 12,000 square-foot, 33-room home, which they named “May Mont,” a name which combines Mrs. Dooley’s maiden name and the Italian word for hill.
 
Among historic house museums, Maymont House is rare in that no intervening families or adaptive conversions separate us from the original owner’s 32-year occupancy. Despite the fact that no architectural drawings or other early records of its construction and design have survived, its physical integrity, study and research provide a reliable record. Within six months of Mrs. Dooley’s death in 1925, the mansion was opened to the public as a museum. The interiors and a large original collection remained relatively untouched until the beginning of the restoration in 1970. Thus today, Maymont House is a well-preserved document of Gilded Age design and the taste of well-educated, cosmopolitan millionaires.
 
In Richmond, Maymont was the most elaborate of several elite homes that reflected the high style of the day, characterized by the juxtaposition and often asymmetrical arrangements of patterns, tones and textures, and historical and exotic styles. The principal rooms each have distinct characters. The adjoining drawing rooms mirror French 18th-century styles. The walls of both rooms are covered in silk damask, the hearthstones are white onyx, and the friezes and ceilings are embellished with fine, ornamental plasterwork and decorative painting. The small den is Near Eastern, and the living hall with its imposing English Renaissance-inspired mantelpiece brings to mind the “baronial hall” of romanticized history. The library is a superb expression of eclecticism and “artistic” taste of the late 1880s and 90s. The ceiling and frieze are embellished with stencilling and strapwork carried out in mahogany, the wood used throughout the room, including the original Venetian blinds. The principal rooms are enriched by stained glass transoms, carved woodwork, decorative ceiling and wall treatments (such as the “painted tapestries” combined with the quarter-sawn oak wainscoting of the Maymont dining room).
 
The second floor includes a central living hall, lit by an immense Tiffany Studios stained glass window that rises above the grand stairway; the morning room, furnished with a painted satinwood set; the famous swan bedroom; two additional bedrooms; and two tiled bathrooms.
 
When completed, Maymont House boasted the latest modern conveniences of the era: electric lighting, an elevator, three full bathrooms and central heat.
 
Twelve restored rooms on the first and second floors are on view during general tours, and an enlightening belowstairs exhibition is open in the mansion basement for self-guided tours. 
 
Maymont House Tours
Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
12-5pm (last tour begins at 4:30)
Sign up in the basement for guided tours of the upper floors
Suggested donation: $5 per person