Maymont Mansion

A Gilded Age estate completed in 1893 for railroad magnate James Dooley and his wife Sallie. The 100-acre property includes a mansion, gardens, and wildlife exhibits.

Maymont Mansion stands as one of Richmond's most remarkable Gilded Age estates, a 33-room Richardsonian Romanesque mansion completed in 1893 for railroad magnate Major James Henry Dooley and his wife Sarah "Sallie" O. May Dooley. The childless couple discovered the property during one of their daily horseback rides and were "struck with the beauty of the views of the river and the beautiful oaks." They commissioned European-trained local architect Edgerton Stewart Rogers to design a 12,000-square-foot showplace on the highest ridge overlooking the James River, filling it with Tiffany stained glass, frescoed ceilings, and opulent furnishings including a garish blue and white swan-shaped bed.

James Dooley was no ordinary businessman. Born in Richmond in 1841 to Irish immigrant parents, he became the first student in Georgetown College history to rank at the head of his class all four years, graduating in 1860. When the Civil War erupted, he enlisted in the Confederate Army alongside his brother John, joining their father's unit, Company C of the First Virginia Infantry (the Montgomery Guard). At the Battle of Williamsburg, James was wounded so severely in his right wrist that it prevented further field service—he spent the remainder of the war in the Ordnance Department.

After the war, Dooley built an immense fortune through law and railroads, eventually controlling a 9,000-mile network stretching to the Texas border. He served in the Virginia Legislature from 1871 to 1877 and became one of Richmond's greatest philanthropists, giving million to St. Joseph's Orphanage—at the time the largest private bequest to a Catholic institution in American history.

Sallie Dooley, born in 1846 to a prominent Lunenburg County family with royal governor ancestry, was an avid horticulturist and writer whose poetry expressed her love of gardens and the antebellum world of her childhood. She became founding regent of Virginia's first chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was a charter member of the Society of Colonial Dames.

From 1893 to 1925, the Dooleys employed seven to ten domestic workers within the mansion and dozens as groundskeepers. Most were African Americans from greater Richmond who worked 13-hour days, with time off only on Thursday afternoons and alternating Sundays. The staff included two butlers, a cook, three maids, and a laundress—their stories are now told in the mansion's "In Service & Beyond" exhibition.

James Dooley died on November 16, 1922, at Grace Hospital, aged 81. He was initially interred with his Confederate comrades at Hollywood Cemetery but was reinterred in March 1924 in a newly completed mausoleum on the Maymont grounds. Sallie followed him in death on September 5, 1925, at their summer home, Swannanoa Palace, on Afton Mountain. Her public bequests—considered the largest ever made by a Virginia woman at the time—included ,000 each to the Crippled Children's Hospital and Richmond Public Library. As her husband had suggested, she left Maymont to the City of Richmond as a public park and museum.

Both Dooleys now rest together in the granite mausoleum just down the hill from the home they loved. But according to local legend and paranormal investigators, they never truly departed.

While documented paranormal activity at Maymont itself remains limited to staff reports of strange feelings and the occasional scent of expensive perfume wafting through the upstairs rooms, the Dooleys are far more active at Swannanoa Palace. There, Sallie has become the estate's most famous spectral tenant. The current owner, James Dulaney, who purchased the property in 2000 and invested over million in restoration, believes firmly in her continued presence: "I have cats and they're locked up and they won't go on the third floor," he explains. Mrs. Dooley was famously known to despise cats.

In June 2013, the Twisted Paranormal Society conducted an investigation at Swannanoa, capturing images of spectral orbs shooting across rooms and stairwells, along with ghostly voices responding to investigators' questions. They returned in 2014 with the crew of "The R.I.P. Files," a paranormal reality show. Season 2's episode "Spirits of the Palace" confirmed through psychic impressions and strong EVPs that the Dooleys had never left their mountain retreat.

A 2021 investigation by a Maryland paranormal group claimed to communicate with a servant named Anthony who said he had fallen from the palace's central tower to his death. Anthony reportedly enjoyed working for the Dooleys and still interacts with tour groups via dowsing rods, turning flashlights on and off in response to questions. The library is considered the most haunted of Swannanoa's 52 rooms, and visitors have heard audible moans and approaching footsteps with no visible source.

James Dooley himself has made his presence known in his study through spirit box communication. When asked why he chose to remain in the palace after death, he replied simply: "Beauty."

Whether the Dooleys occasionally visit their primary Richmond residence remains uncertain, but those who work at Maymont speak of a maternal presence that seems to watch over the home. Some believe Sallie, who poured her heart into Maymont's gardens and left specific instructions for its preservation, continues to ensure her beloved estate remains exactly as she envisioned it—a gift to Richmond forever.