While in Richmond we took a tour of the Maymont Mansion . This gilded age estate is situated on 100 acres in the middle of Richmond. From the Maymont website:  During the Gilded Age of the late 1880s through the 1910s—the era of Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt —millionaires demonstrated their prosperity through their elaborate homes. Richmond-born financier James Dooley was among this new class in American society. His home, Maymont, stands today as a remarkably complete expression of Gilded Age luxury and opulence. Maymont was the 100-acre Victorian country estate of James Henry and Sallie May Dooley. In 1886, the Dooleys first viewed and purchased the rough pasture and field that would become Maymont. At the age of forty, with no children and the resources of her husband’s prosperity at her disposal, Sallie Dooley led the effort to transform the landscape into a showplace that would rival the lavish estates that were springing up throughout the c...

The Beautiful James River The plantations along the James River offer some fantastic views of the river and surrounding areas, as well as several plantations that offer tours. During the Holidays some of the plantation homes are decorated in traditional colonial holiday themes ... except for the fact that they include a Christmas tree, which was not introduced to America from Germany until Victorian times. Unlike the antebellum plantation mansions of the deep south, these colonial buildings are seemingly much more modest. It is true, however, that they were luxury homes in the 1700s ... but times were different.  These estates entertained the truly privileged of their time. Presidents, generals, civic leaders all dined, danced and slept in these homes. We visited two of these historic estates ... the Shirley Plantation and the Berkeley Plantation. Shirley Plantation Shirley Plantation is Virginia’s first plantation, founded in 1613, after a royal land grant carved...

Our grandson graduated from VCU a couple of weeks ago, so we spent a few days in Richmond. We toured a couple of Colonial Plantations and a marvelous Gilded Age Mansion. However, the tour de force were the Christmas decorations at the Jefferson Hotel, where we stayed. WOW! They go all out! The Jefferson is a hotel that is just loaded with history. Built in 1895, it has been host to numerous presidents, dignitaries, celebrities and VIPs. The grand staircase was the setting for that iconic scene in Gone With the Wind when Vivien Leigh made her entrance to the ballroom, and later when Clark Gable carried her up the stairs. This year, the whole entrance, lobby and ballroom, as well as the balcony and mezzanine. Out front the big bronze alligator sports a flower decoration and holds a very large glass ornament in its jaws. In the lobby, there is a lovely nativity (nice to see a nativity at Christmas, after all that is what it is about) and a large gingerbread and ...