Southern Garden History Society Toured Maymont in June 2012
Maymont, a 100-acre late Gilded Age estate in Richmond, Virginia, preserves two historic landscapes created for its original owners, James H. and Sallie May Dooley. Built along the James River and Kanawha Canal, the public park features a ca. 1910 Italian Garden and a sprawling Japanese garden that reflect the property’s early-twentieth-century design influences.
Southern Garden History Society members toured the property during their thirtieth annual meeting in June 2012, using downtown’s Jefferson Hotel as a base for exploring Virginia’s capital, southerngardenhistory.org reported. Peggy Singlemann, then Maymont’s director of horticulture, described the ongoing financial and maintenance realities of managing a historic estate in a lecture titled “Gardening in her Footsteps and Wishing I had her Budget.”
Estate Origins Along the James River
The Dooleys established their estate in 1893 on a knoll-top setting overlooking the James River. Sallie May Dooley’s middle name and the geographic setting inspired the name Maymont. Over the next two decades, the couple developed the grounds to reflect both their substantial wealth and the eclectic gardening tastes of the period.
To design their terraced garden, the couple turned to the Richmond firm Noland & Baskervill. Completed around 1910, the Italian Garden southeast of the main stone residence drew heavy inspiration from the Villa Torlonia in Frascati, near Rome. The space features a long pergola ending in a domed summer house, formal parterres, and classical sculptural elements including stone walls, urns, and a gazebo.
Water features replicate the architectural waterworks of the Villa Torlonia. A fountain court and a multi-level cascade—known in Italian as a catena d’acqua or chain waterfall—terminate in a semi-circular basin. The Italian Garden functioned primarily as a spring retreat for the Dooleys, who typically spent the summer months traveling.
The Shift Toward Eastern Design
Following the completion of the Italian Garden, the Dooleys commissioned designer Yonehachi Muto to lay out a Japanese garden directly abutting the canal. Designed as a traditional stroll garden, the six-plus-acre landscape provides shaded, contemplative spaces featuring a majestic waterfall, a winding brook, arched bridges, a koi pond, and traditional stone lanterns.
Following Sallie Dooley’s death, the couple bequeathed Maymont to the City of Richmond for public enjoyment. Ownership transferred to the municipal government in 1925, receiving full-page coverage in the gravure section of the September 27, 1925, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch under the headline celebrating it as a “Gift to the City.”
Maymont Foundation Restores Grounds for Public Access
The property experienced alternating periods of decline, renewal, and restoration over the subsequent decades. A crucial turning point arrived in 1975 when the nonprofit Maymont Foundation acquired the property to restore and preserve the historic grounds.
During the Southern Garden History Society’s 2012 visit, afternoon thunderstorms cut short the scheduled walk-about, forcing attendees to retreat to the adjacent Robins Nature Center for a tented dinner. Beyond the Italian and Japanese landscapes, today’s visitors access an extensive arboretum, wildlife trails, the nature center, and the Dooleys’ original turreted stone residence.