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After 25 Years, Carbon Leaf Still Brings It Home

Jo Rozycki | July 13, 2018

Topics: Carbon Leaf, Maymont, Music at Maymont

Just over a year since we last met, Carbon Leaf is back for a summer show at Maymont. I sat down with band members Terry Clark and Barry Privett in their suburban Richmond home studio to catch up on their new projects and the trials and tribulations they’ve faced over their long career.

Carbon Leaf has been a mainstay in the folksy, Celtic-Americana scene, and as a Richmond-born band that has been around for a couple of decades, they’ve grown a cult following in the 804 area code and beyond.

Celebrating their 25th year making music, Clark and Privett are excited to bring tunes both familiar and new to their hometown. With 17 albums behind them, they have a big back catalog, but they’ve faced legal challenges regaining the rights to albums produced under Vanguard Records, the label they left in 2010.

The legal challenges made re-recording their main priority over the last few years. Buoyed by positive feedback for the new versions, the band finished three revamped albums, Indian Summer Revisited, Love Loss Hope Repeat Reneaux, and Nothing Rhymes with Woman (2016 Re-Recorded Version), and regained full rights to their music from their previous label. With the legal logistics behind them, Privett and Clark have been focusing on releasing their most recent album, Gathering Vol. 1, which dropped earlier this month.

Photo courtesy of Carbon Leaf

“We’re doing a kind of a series of series of smaller albums. We’re going to do four part series under the Gathering banner,” Privett said. Clark mentioned that this album was a collaboration with We Banjo Three, an Irish band which prides itself on originating “celtgrass.” “We were trying to align our tour schedule with their tour schedule and get together, but the stars didn’t align to let us do that, so we were able to send them tracks in Ireland and then they sent us them back,” Clark said. With demos created by Carbon Leaf member, Carter Gravatt, the band sent their rough sketches to We Banjo Three in Galway to have them add supplemental instrumentation. “We were able to transfer the tracks off the iPad and then send the tracks over and have We Banjo 3 add some banjo and some fiddle and some mandolin, in addition to the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin Carter already played on the tracks too,” Clark said.

Privett said that they plan on featuring other guest artists on the future volumes and playing to their talents in order to create a cohesive sound. “You could argue that if you go with the theme that each album’s going to have some guests on it, you kinda want to play to their talents, so you just never know,” he said.

The creation of Gathering was routine for the band, given their years of experience: after jamming, Clark would work with the created music and tie in some lyrics. But this particular album had some major kinks thrown into the release. The massive rainfall in early June led to flooding in the band’s home studio. Boxes of CDs and merchandise were damaged from the water. “When we came home from tour to find the flood, we were actually going to be shipping Gathering the next day,” said Privett. “It took us a week to get the studio back to normal and then we were shipping.”

Nonetheless, the band marched on, releasing what they could and working on replacing the damaged goods.

In addition to the new music and collaboration style the band is working on, Carbon Leaf has created a new way for fans to be a part of the family and receive some exclusive content. “We also launched a secret society,” Privett said. “It’s also tied into the album. Just something for fans that want something a little different to be involved in.” The Crow Foot and Key Society includes secret editions of music, exclusive merchandise, membership certificates, and more secret content.

With their guest instrumentalists and secret society, the band has been working diligently to expand their routine in comparison to their last 25 years. This includes an international leg of their fall tour. “It was kind of a bucket list thing that we wanted to do,” Clark said. “Twenty-fifth anniversary seemed like a good time to do it. It’s also something we’ve been talking about for a while.” With a handful of stops in the UK, Paris, Copenhagen, and more, European fans can expect to see the group in mid-to-late October.

With a band that has such an extensive repertoire, history, and fan base, it is comforting to see the level of energy, commitment, and devotion Carbon Leaf possesses. With such friendly and talented members, Carbon Leaf feels like a band you’d want to play any time you’re in the need for comfort, motivation, or feeling homesick. Gathering is an exceptional addition to their lengthy catalogue, especially considering We Banjo 3’s contributions.

Photo by Kevin Langan

With new content under their belts, Carbon Leaf is excited to play at Maymont. Privet said, “It’s fun to play in your hometown. It’s a nice exhale.” The fans who can’t make it to their tour shows are extra special during this concert. “Our families come, our kids’ friends are there, the kids’ teachers, our neighbors,” Clark said. “It’s like, ‘This is our community.’ They’re all coming together to come support us.”

Carbon Leaf will be playing today, Friday July 13, at Maymont. Kid-friendly, this show will feature many of the beloved songs of Carbon Leaf, including some new tracks off Gathering. Tickets are still available. Gathering Vol. 1 is available in physical and digital form.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Peculiar and Spectral History of Swannanoa Palace

Sarah Honosky | June 26, 2018

Topics: Maymont, Maymont Park, occult, Swannanoa

RVA Mag set off one downcast Sunday in June to uncover the mysteries of Swannanoa, the Afton, Virginia mountain palace of the famous Dooley family. Before reaching Swannanoa, I was almost certain that Dee Dee, the attendant at the Waynesboro Shell Station, would be the last person to see us alive.

Waynesboro, Virginia is a small town in the valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains–a bleak, rural sprawl fringed by sloping foothills and rolling farmland. At first glance, this part of Virginia appears innocuous. It’s known for little more than its proximity to the Shenandoah National Park along with a litany of recent drug busts. However, there is a history of the bizarre nestled in these mountains.

Sitting on top of one such mountain is the mysterious mansion built by one of Richmond’s most historic families, and the first stop in a summer of paranormal investigations undertaken by RVA Mag throughout the Commonwealth.  

Swannanoa Palance

Before taking the winding road up to Swannanoa, we talked with Dee Dee about the rumors surrounding the mansion. A Waynesboro native, she alluded to the fact that something strange goes on at the top of the mountain; she has heard the rumors her entire life. She refuses to even visit the marble mansion that overlooks Rockfish Gap.

We don’t have the same concerns.

Swannanoa Palace is an iconic fixture of Afton – a once lavish estate built from blocks of Carrara marble – complete with terraced English gardens, intricate wooden paneling, a Persian tower, and enormous installations of Tiffany stained glass, some of the most coveted in the US.

The palace’s renown is rivaled only by the rumors surrounding it–a cocktail of urban legends and local mythos that range from ghost sightings to the occult.

Swannanoa was constructed as a summer home in 1912 by railroad magnate James H. Dooley, the same millionaire who built Maymont Mansion–the gilded age estate which sits in Maymont Park. And like Maymont Mansion, it was built for his wife, Sallie May Dooley, who remained childless, eventually dying at the estate in 1926.

Upon entering the dilapidated mansion at Swannanoa, the first thing you see is an enormous stained glass window of Sallie May, which dominates the cavernous foyer and sits atop a grand staircase.

Tiffany Stained Glass Window of Sallie May Dooley

Before taking an ad-hoc tour of Swannanoa, I check in with our team. Everyone is already scattered around the mansion; we’re a B-list Scooby Doo remake, minus the dog. By the end of our “investigation”, I am hoping to unmask at least one wealthy landowner in a ghost costume.

The tour is given by Airisun Wonderli, an Augusta County native and author of Swannanoa Palace: A Pictorial History—Its Past and People, who recently moved onto the Swannanoa grounds. Wonderli is not only a historian of Swannanoa, but a member of the University of Science and Philosophy (USP), a spiritual group dedicated to the teachings of its creators.

The University was founded at Swannanoa in 1948 by Walter and Lao Russell, who leased the mansion for 50 years. Walter was a philosopher, author, and artist, who Wonderli claims Walter Cronkite called the “Leonardo Da Vinci of our time” when he died in 1963. Lao was a self-made woman from England, a former model and businesswoman, who shared Walter’s visions of grandeur and his unique cosmogony.

Despite the thirty years that separated them in age, Wonderli called their relationship “one of the greatest love stories that has ever happened.” Walter and Lao’s journey to find Swannanoa was “prewritten”, according to Wonderli, a key mechanism in a larger design, part of the destiny they spent their lives trying to fulfill.

Foyer of Swannanoa Palace

This included a three day “illumination” in 1946, in which Lao looked across a valley as Jesus placed a hand on her shoulder and experienced visions. After this, she was determined to find the ‘sacred mountain’ in her visions. The Russells spent their honeymoon in search of the right mountain top, one where Lao felt she could establish a “world cultural center.”

“[Lao] looked out on the view I have right now of Rockfish Gap, and she said, ‘This is it,’” said Wonderli. “There’s an energy up there, under the palace, that goes very, very deep… There have been too many people who walked on that land and felt a presence there.”

Matt Presti, the current president of USP, agreed that there is something special about the top of the mountain where Swannanoa sits.

I’ve heard people say it’s a vortex, but for me the experience of being at a higher elevation with a view,” Presti said. “It’s more about the inspiration you receive from such natural places of power.

USP is a home-study university dedicated to educating its followers about universal law, natural science, and living philosophy, all of which are designed to lead to self-transcendence. The teachings focus around the works and writings of Walter and Lao Russell, like Walter’s 1947 book The Secret of Light, which sought to create a spiritual foundation under science. Much of it’s based around the metaphysical idea of the “Creator.”

Presti said they fill more than a thousand orders a year in home-study courses, and have a worldwide student body. “It’s more a living philosophy, as opposed to a dead one,” he said. “It’s cult proof as well in the sense that it has no middle man, there’s nothing between you and your own mind which is an extension of the creator.”

A Spectral Atmosphere

To Wonderli, USP’s following is no surprise, claiming that Swannanoa has a magnetic draw. This is true for students of the philosophy like Adrianne Boyer, who was working the information table when we arrived.

Boyer is a new convert, whose family left Texas to be closer to the University where her husband works as a scientist out of a “laboratory” in his basement. They are living on the mansion’s property now, and the same land where the Russells were buried after their death, or their “refolding,” as it is referred to by USP.  

Even though time has forced the gaudy Italian Renaissance revival architecture into crumbling disrepair, the mansion is still striking. It towers over the front drive, a jagged alabaster tomb, its heavy wooden doors giving no hint at what lies inside.

A majority of the house is sealed away, but we were allowed to wander downstairs. The grand marble staircase curves to the second floor, where only one bedroom is open. It overlooks the wooded grounds, teasing a glimpse at the vast mountain valley that brought Lao and Walter to the estate 70 years ago.

While some of the mansion’s rooms are closed to the public, a look through any keyhole reveals piles of clutter. Wonderli said there are some rooms she has never been in. Other volunteers said no one has stepped foot in the basement in years, part of the house lost to rot and disuse.

Corridors of the Unknown

The current owners, James and Sandi Dulaney, who keep the house open for tours, have spent millions attempting to repair the mansion, yet it has proved too much to maintain. Dulaney is also the owner of Afton Inn, a “blighted landscape” that mars the mountainside just below the palace, another project that has fallen into disrepair.

The deteriorating interior adds to the atmospheric small-town-lore for which house has become notorious. Hauntingly beautiful (despite cracked marble verandas), Latin inscribed wooden molding, and a mirrored elevator tucked behind what looked to be a hidden wall panel, the drop would be fatal if it caught you unawares.  

The grounds are equally corroding, the marble exterior falling from the stairs that lead to a sparse landscape, a large, jagged crack running the length of the columned, italianate portico. There’s a tower growing out of the ivy on the back acreage of the property and, in true Shaggy fashion, my ill-advised exploration inside almost led to a plunge through a gap in the winding, rotting stairs to the dark basement below. Zoinks.

The Persian Tower

Wonderli said she has felt spirits at the house, though not malevolent. “That trauma gets caught,” Wonderli said of the Native American slaughter she assumes once happened on the land. She claims to have heard noises, or sensed a presence.

Afton locals, Lyle and Tonna Lotts, have conducted paranormal investigations in the area since 2011 with their team The Twisted Paranormal Society (TPS). They were more than eager to conduct an exploration of the mansion in 2013.

They said it was their most followed investigation by the Afton and Waynesboro community, and even though the Dulaneys did not let TPS do a full shut in or spend the night, they were allowed a few hours on the property until midnight.

Afton mountain has always had rumors of energy and spirits, said Lyle. “The way they used to do things up at Swannanoa for one thing, their beliefs, their religion, the things that they followed up there, I believe a lot of that created a lot of energy.”

Swannanoa Grounds

While they would have liked more time in the house to conduct a more thorough investigation, they found enough to be convinced of Swannanoa’s haunting. They used video and audio equipment and K-II meters – a standard paranormal investigation tool that responds to EMF fluctuations – but much of the evidence could be heard without any electronic assistance.

Tonna recounts hearing footsteps while in one of the towers, and the sound of approaching feet when looking around the corner. They also heard an audible moan in the library in response to a question they asked of the purported spirit.

“I was the one holding the camera when the actual guttural sound happened… and of course everyone jumped,” Lyle said. “He was just letting us know we were interfering, were in his space… one of our members actually got very sick, on the second floor, and he had to leave because the energy had gotten so strong in that one corner at the top of the main stairs.”

They believe one of the ghosts belongs to Sallie May, who died in the Swan Room of the mansion, and is said to frequent the third floor. “Sallie May did not like cats,” said Tonna.  “And the Dulaneys say, to this day, their cat will not go up on the third floor.”

Tiffany Lamp

Lyle believes some of the spirits came from the “second generation of the house,” The Russells and USP, which he referred to as a cult.

Despite the chance to do an initial investigation, Lyle called it “unfinished business.”

“There’s a basement there as well that we never even got to go into. And, of course, the tower that’s in the back,” said Lyle. Double zoinks.

Alongside the ghost stories, Swannanoa is home to some more fringe conspiracy theories. Among them involved the yearly homecomings of The Center of One Heart, an offshoot of USP that was created in 2000. Some members, like Wonderli and Boyer, are still a part of both organizations.

The homecomings were designed to be yearly retreats back to the mansion, even being held by Lao when she was alive. Airisun called it a gathering, a festival of sorts, where speakers from the group are invited to lecture.

Upstairs in Swannanoa

“This would be more of what I imagine the Native Americans used to have,” said Wonderli. “They did a lot of vision quests and pow-pows up here. We’re choosing to call it a gathering, a milling of people.”

A 2015 post on The Center of One Heart website, called “The Electrifying Power of Male-Female Balance,” goes into detail about the meaning of their Homecoming that year.

“All are welcome to celebrate at the altar of the swan and to enjoy the magic and pure consciousness of a sacred site and vortex which will be magically re-opened again,” wrote One Heart member Devi Herrsche.

There are also plenty of rumors tying the Illuminati to Swannanoa, and a man who lived on the property next door, William Bennet Edwards, was known for spreading sensationalized stories about the mansion.

Grounds Fountains

An archived 1992 article in The Washington Post documented a few of Edwards’ conspiracy theories – including sightings of the Queen of England, and a secret meeting place of something called the “agents of the council of 30.”

Vortexes, celebrity sightings, and the Illuminati aside, Swannanoa Mansion has a presence that keeps the space alive, even as the marble facade begins to crumble. There is a throughline of spirituality, beauty, and mystery that runs beneath the palace, and you don’t have to look much further than a simple visit to decide for yourself.

But if you ask me, I still think there’s something in the basement.

Photos by Landon Shroder

Frozen in Time: The Unknown History of Maymont

Madelyne Ashworth | October 12, 2017

Topics: James H. Dooley, Maymont, Maymont Foundation, Maymont Park, Virginia history

Rolling hills and a sprawling park lead to the beautiful mansion that sits on a hill. Its detailed architecture and lavish decor are frozen in time as the legacy of the mansion in Maymont has been sealed into its bygone generation, waiting to reveal its ever-present charm of the Gilded Age to the 21st century.

If you grew up in Richmond, then at some point you have been on a school field trip to Maymont. The farm animals and seemingly endless bamboo forest make it the perfect playground for an elementary school child, and years later you might return to have a picnic or two on its sprawling lawns. However, it’s unlikely you have walked through the doors of the residence which once belonged to the family who began it.

Gilded Age Decorum in the Maymont Mansion

RVA Magazine had the privilege of receiving a private tour of the Maymont mansion with Curator and Director of Historical Collections and Programs, Dale Wheary, to learn about its past, its construction, and to understand how the mansion functioned as the living, breathing home of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Dooley.

“The important thing to me has been helping the public see Maymont in the context of the times,” said Dale Wheary. “Some historic sites are important because they were the homes of national figures, and Dooley was, in his time, involved nationally. Some places are historic sites because they’re built by an important architect, or sometimes because an important event took place there. Maymont is one of those.”

She went on to say, “It has a basis for a national registered status and it’s representative of its time, of an architectural type of its time. It’s an ornamental estate that flourished in this period, the Gilded Age. We’re interpreting the Gilded Age, the people that lived here, Maymont as a home, and Maymont as a workplace.”

Maymont was open to the public only six months after Sallie Dooley’s death in 1925, but very few first-hand accounts survive from the Dooley’s themselves. All of the Dooley’s papers, records of sale and personal documents were destroyed after her death as a customary means to protect the privacy of the deceased, meaning much of the history we know about the mansion today was collected from first-hand accounts, newspaper clips, and family members.

Luckily, these various means to information have painted a relatively clear picture of life in the Dooley house, even over 90 years later.

John and Sarah Dooley came to America from Ireland, and like most immigrants of their time, hoped to make a prosperous life in their new country. After marrying in Alexandria, the couple moved to Richmond and John Dooley set up a hat shop on Main Street. A charismatic, philanthropic man from a prominent Roman Catholic family, Dooley quickly entered the elite social circles of Richmond and his hat business flourished, selling them throughout the South and amply providing for his wife and nine children.

One of these children was James Henry Dooley, who in 1856 left home to study at Georgetown University. He graduated at the top of his class and was beginning his graduate degree when the issue of secession arose, at which time he returned to Richmond to join the Confederate army with his brother, John. He joined his father’s Southern-Irish militia, the Montgomery Guards, but was wounded as a private in the Battle of Williamsburg by taking a bullet to his right wrist. Later in life, he was commonly referred to by the honorific “Major.”

After the war, James Dooley finished his graduate degree and became an attorney, doing quite well despite the economic challenges in post-Civil War South. Unfortunately, his father’s hat company burned down during Richmond’s evacuation fire. Although John Sr. wanted to rebuild it, he was getting old and simply couldn’t restore it.

John Henry met his wife, Sallie May, and they were married in 1869. As the young Dooley began to accumulate his own wealth, he began investing in a number of different railroad companies and was on the board for several of those companies, which included Richmond & Danville and Chesapeake & Ohio, now CSX. By the 1880s, Dooley’s railroad and real estate investments did so well he decided to discontinue practicing law and dedicate himself to business.

He and his wife began running in the same social circle as Lewis Ginter and Joseph Bryan, doing business with Bryan and Fred Scott. They traveled frequently and would sometimes take horseback rides through the counties outside the City of Richmond. It was on one of these rides in 1886 that they found a beautiful plot of land in what was then still Henrico county–a lovely hillside from which you could see the James River.

“He said they had set out from Shields Grove, riding down the hill, across the creek, up the hill, and came to this spot, the highest place on the property, the old oak trees, the beautiful views of the river, and they decided to buy the property and build their estate here,” said Wheary.

At the time, many members of the upper class were moving to the outskirts of cities to escape the congested streets and smog of a lately industrialized city. The area had been farmland during the 19th century and was complete with ravines, creeks, hills, lowlands and a beautiful landscape that led to the ornate estate.

In 1887 the Dooley’s hired Edgerton Rogers, an American architect who had grown up in Rome, Italy and had been hired by Lewis Ginter the same year. The house was excavated in 1889 and at 13,000 square feet, it was finally finished in 1893. It became their private park and was one of the first electric houses in the country.

The Maymont Mansion

“Maymont is very special, because it is the only largely intact Gilded Age ornamental estate that is open to the public and preserved in Virginia,” said Wheary. “This totality of the estate is the important thing.”

The Gilded Age, a period from the 1870s until WWI, was a short period in the American South that boasted economic growth whose style coincided with the Victorian era in England. Dooley was one of the Gilded Age millionaires, which showed in the style of the house, the objects that furnished it, and the staff they hired at Maymont, a name he chose taken from Sallie’s maiden name, May.

“One of the reasons Maymont is so special is because it’s so largely intact: the original acreage, the original landscape scheme, we even have many of the original plant materials, many of the trees go back to [the Dooley’s] time,” said Wheary. “In the house, they left the collection. It’s not everything they had, but the collection was selected from this home and their summer home, Swannanoa, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Practically everything you see [was original to the house].”

Since the house was built nearly 40 years after the Civil War, no slaves were part of the construction of that house. They did hire an army of groundskeepers and gardeners: about 20 men who worked on the grounds, plus an estate manager who lived in a cottage at the Hampton Street entrance with his wife, and about 10 staff that worked in the house. Although the Dooleys had no children, they were often surrounded by nieces, nephews, and of course their employees, with whom they developed close relationships.

Maymont Mansion Grounds

One of these employees was estate manager Mr. Louis Taliaferro (pronounced ‘Toliver’). “He would walk the grounds with Mrs. Dooley every day and get her recommendations on what to plant where and making orders for plants,” Wheary explained. “They ordered trees and plants from different nurseries from up and down the East Coast. He organized all of that work.”

When Taliaferro was interviewed by the paper in the 1940s, he discussed his work relationship with Mrs. Dooley and the details of maintaining their sprawling lawns. “She’s very particular,” he said, “but I knew how to please her.”

While the grounds of Maymont are lovely, everything inside the house is beautifully ornate, every detail is perfectly preserved and plays out like a film. The dining room is posed for dinner, as if at any moment the Dooleys will sit down as their butler, Mr. Dilworth, rings the service bell, signifying to the kitchen that dinner may be served. Maybe their Saint Bernard would come running through the room as the fireplace crackled in the front hall, and the maids finished up their workday. The Dooley mansion is truly frozen in time.

The collection Mrs. Dooley left after her death totaled about 1,000 pieces.

One of the remarkable pieces in their collection is a set of china plates, originally created for President Rutherford B. Hayes to sit in the White House. Because the project went over-budget, the White House permitted the company to make duplicate sets. There are only a few in the world, and the Dooleys managed to acquire one. It’s one of the largest collections of this particular sets in the United States.

Upstairs, the Dooley’s bedrooms further reveal their excess wealth. Mrs. Dooley’s bedroom is a vision of white and blue, with paintings and figurines of swans throughout the room. In the corner stands a magnificent swan bed, complete with her original mattress, which was brought from her summer home. Her vanity set, also original, was made by Tiffany and Co. and is made from sterling silver and narwhal tusks. Inspired by Viking ships excavated in 1903, Vikings were a popular theme at the time, and Tiffany created a ‘Viking revival’ line of houseware.

At least twice, the Dooleys held large parties with over 400 guests crowding into the house. For these events, they hired caterers out of Washington. However, on a normal day, Mr. Dilworth was the master and commander of every meal. Well-versed in proper dining etiquette and order of courses, he oversaw their dining experience as well as every aspect of the house.

“No matter whether they dined alone or if they had guests, the two butlers, the butler and the assistant butler, would stand in attendance here,” said Wheary. “All was done according to a high level of etiquette and propriety.”

William Dilworth, a black man, worked in the house as the head butler, a role which meant he was effectively head of staff. In addition to Dilworth, the Dooleys hired an assistant butler, cook, assistant cook, maids, and a laundress, among others.

“Mr. Dilworth lived in this neighborhood and rode his bicycle to work everyday,” said Wheary. “He and his wife had a family there.”

Much of the information Maymont curators have gathered about the domestic workers of the Dooley household is from descendants of the employees themselves, including the cook, Frances Twiggs Walker.

“[Descendants of the employees] told us little things about daily life, like there being a parrot in the kitchen who could talk,” said Wheary. “He said, ‘biscuits hot!’”

The heart of the mansion is in the basement. Refurbished to show what life would have been like for Maymont’s staff, the basement is also frozen in time to reveal a full, working kitchen, pantry space, servers’ quarters, and even bedrooms for the few staff who lived in the house.

“I felt that if we did not talk about the two worlds under one roof, then we wouldn’t be doing good history,” explained Wheary. “We wouldn’t be telling a full comprehensive story if we weren’t talking about Maymont as a workplace as well as a home.”

A house like Maymont was a desired place of work for those in domestic service: the staff was large so less work needed to be done, the family was wealthy but small, and the pay was good.

“Slavery was over, but the Jim Crow laws came in, and things became very restricted about which types of jobs people would qualify for, as well as impositions on individual rights,” said Wheary. “African-Americans filled these jobs when very few other options were available for them. The staff in the house was largely African-American.”

Mrs. Walker’s kitchen has a gas stove, a large table for chopping and rolling, and of course a talking parrot. Walker, a black woman, had many children who inherited her profession and would go on to work as head cooks at Maymont themselves.

“In the South, by virtue of the conditions and social order, the African-American community continued to fill these domestic service roles after slavery ended. In the South, it was an African-American story.”

People like the Dooleys did their best to look out for their staff, such as providing health care in a government that did not yet provide welfare and a country that did not offer equal rights to all its citizens. However, working in domestic service meant spending a great deal of time away from your own family while you catered to another’s.

“Those are things that we want people to understand about domestic service, to empathize with people who had little other choice than to work in domestic service.”

Although Major and Mrs. Dooley were kind, political ideology at the time was split many different ways and likely caused some interesting conversations at the dinner table.

“[The Dooleys] were people of their time. They generally bought into the ‘Lost Cause’ movement,” Wheary said, describing a movement that suggested the Civil War was a heroic endeavor, despite the Confederate defeat. “Major Dooley’s sisters, on the other hand–well-educated women from the South, their father saw to it that they were well-educated– they became very progressive. They sponsored African-American children at their Roman Catholic churches. They got involved with the suffrage movement early on.”

Major Dooley died in 1922, and in his will suggested to his wife she leave the estate to the City of Richmond to become a museum and park. Sallie died in 1925, at 85. She willed a great deal of her money to various charities and institutions around Richmond, including $500,000 to build the Richmond Public Library, as well as leaving generous gifts to each of her house staff.

The domestic workers received between $500 to $1,000 in Mrs. Dooley’s will. Frances Twiggs Walker was able to buy a home with the money.  

Unfortunately, this left no money to the city to maintain Maymont, thus the Maymont Foundation was created.

It took only six months to open the property to the public. Mr. Dooley in his will expressed their desire that the city keep Mr. Taliaferro as the groundskeeper, a request which they granted. He remained in his cottage home at the Hampton Street entrance until his death in the 1940s.

Unfortunately, as time passed, the house entered a derelict condition. “The upholstery of chairs were falling out on the floor, silk wall coverings were dry rotted and hanging in shreds, coal dust that gathered over the years covering everything, shredded textiles, falling ceilings, so in 1970, you would have been horrified,” Wheary said. “The city began a small fund to clean up the grounds.”

Chairs made of Narwhal Tusk

However, in 1975, the Maymont Foundation took on the monstrous responsibility of raising the funds needed to maintain the property, operating as a separate non-profit to run the park and museum, which now costs $11,000 per day, or $3.3 million per year. Since then, the Foundation was able to refurbish the house, keep the grounds, and add well-loved Maymont spots we know today, such as the Nature Center and the Maymont Farm.

Yet the shining jewel of the grounds is still the Dooley mansion, steeped in history, its halls ringing with the clang of Ms. Walker’s pots, Mr. Dilworth’s footsteps across the carpeted floors, laughter of nieces and nephews come to visit, all overlooking the lawn and gardens of Maymont Park which now host Richmond’s picnics, weddings and school field trips alike.

And to think it all began with a hat shop.

 

*Photos by Landon Shroder

Carbon Leaf on reviving old projects ahead of Maymont show 6/24

Jo Rozycki | June 20, 2017

Topics: Americana, Carbon Leaf, Celtic, folk, Maymont

What do you get when you mix a Celtic-Americana-indie-rock band, a garage studio in the suburbs of Richmond, and Maymont Park? Turns out, it’s Carbon Leaf. The local band, whose career has spanned almost 25 years, is due to play at Maymont Park this weekend. 

The band hasn’t played at Maymont since 2010, but the quintet is excited to return to the venue. 

“It’s such a family friendly and oriented show, that’s why the Maymont show in particular is so much fun,” said Terry Clark, guitarist for Carbon Leaf.

Clark sat down with RVA Mag recently at his house in Henrico, his kids running around the yard and house just outside, while we chatted about their old days, latest work and what’s next for them. 

Barry Privett, the band’s leading vocalist and multi instrumentalist ( penny whistle, bagpipes, and guitar), mentioned how much the band loves playing in Richmond, their hometown and starting point of their career.

“It’s cool because you have such a deep history of fans still in the area,” he said. “The fans that were coming to see us when we were young, they still come out, but they also have kids of their own or maybe even teenagers that are into the music.”

After meeting together while attending Randolph-Macon College, Carbon Leaf grew their fan base in and around the Richmond area. With 24 years of performing and 16 albums under their belts, the band’s sound  has understandably changed, but not dramatically.

 

“It took a while to figure out what we were doing,” said Privett. “Through time, you start to figure out what works for you, what doesn’t. You hone down into the things that each person really likes. I think it breaks up a lot of artists because they don’t know how to communicate that. You really just learn how to communicate creatively, you learn how to collaborate creatively through that struggle of figuring out what’s best for the song.”

The band has a catalog of instrumentation that Privett works with to develop lyrics that form songs. Rather than creating an album that has a mixture of vibes or genres, they try to compile songs that have similar sounds and create an album that is primarily one cohesive sound.

Two prime examples are the albums the band released in 2013. Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle, which  is distinctly more Celtic sounding, and Constellation Prize, an album with a more Americana vibe to it.

 

For right now, the band is not focusing on the vibe of their new album, but rather revisiting their older material.

Carbon Leaf was formerly a part of Vanguard Records, (Flogging Molly, Barenaked Ladies, Switchfoot), but the rights to songs and money became a concern.

“The last couple of albums sold over 80 percent at shows and online,” said Clark. “Do you need to pay them a whole lot of money to get you on a record store shelf in Des Moines when you’re not selling any product anyhow? You’re paying these exorbitant fees to them.”

The shift from physical record to digital was making its move, and the band was noticing.

“The main thing for a label is can you get some really good licensing deals or some really good radio coverage. We did get some of that with the first album, Indian Summer, but then the subsequent albums, that business wasn’t there,” added Privett.

The label also owned the rights to the master recordings. While Carbon Leaf owned the intellectual property, the label owned the digital media.

“They basically don’t own the songs, but they do own the songs,” said Privett. Despite all of this, the band found a clause within the contract that would work to their advantage.

“There was a term of five years after you’ve left the label that you could re-record. In other words, if you wanted the rights to revert back, you’d have to re-record so that you have an alternate master recordings of the songs that you own. And that’s what we did,” said Privett.

Since leaving the label, the band has re-recorded three of their albums, Indian Summer Revisited, Love Loss Hope Repeat Reneaux,  and Nothing Rhymes with Woman (2016 Re-Recorded Version), which was released just in December of last year.

“We can take those [re-recorded songs] and we can put them out into the world,” said Privett. “If an opportunity comes up where we can license the song to something, we have a version that we own.”

 

In terms of the fan response to the re-done albums, the feedback has been positive.

“I think we improved on all the albums and the songs,” said Privett. “They still sound like they should. We weren’t changing things just to change things. The fans have been supportive about the reason why we’re doing it.”

With campaigns backed by fans to support the endeavor, the band has seen great success in regaining the rights to their songs.

For the re-recordings, Carbon Leaf set up a studio in the unattached garage at Clark’s house in Henrico. Complete with a soundproof room donated by a local radio station, the group was able to bring their production right into their own backyards, on their own dime, for a fraction of the cost of recording with a record company.

“We’ve done the last six projects up here [in the studio], self-engineered and produced and literally shipped from the studio directly to pre-order fans and all that,” said Privett.

For the upcoming Maymont show, the band is looking forward to sharing their large repertoire with fans new and returning.

Privett said that they won’t be highlighting their re-recorded version of Nothing Rhymes with Woman, even though it’s their most recent album, a move most bands use to their advantage to promote newer material. “

What you really want to do is make the live shows great as you can,” he said. “People are seeing you only once a year. People are paying for that anticipation. We’ve got a deep enough catalog where we can keep it fresh.”

Because the last few years have been spent re-recording older material, the band is ready for something new.

“We’re working on some new material and are shooting for a new release this September,” said Privett.

Although their career has spanned for almost 25 years, Carbon Leaf is still kicking. After transitioning from a label to working on their own, they haven’t missed a beat and are making major strides with their music. 

Carbon Leaf will perform this Sat., June 24  from 6 to 11 pm at Maymont. Tickets are $15-20 and can be purchased here.

 

 

Common, Erykah Badu, Isley Brothers & more to perform at Richmond Jazz Festival in August

Amy David | May 30, 2017

Topics: Hardywood, Hippodrome Theater, Maymont, music, Richmond Jazz Festival, RVA jazz, vmfa

The Richmond Jazz Festival recently announced its musical lineup for 2017 and it is stacked with amazing musicians and bands for its eighth season.

R&B/soul queen herself Erykah Badu will headline, along with Common (with the Richmond Symphony), The Isley Brothers, Jazmine Sullivan, The Manhattan Transfer and Bob James who round out the other big name acts. The rest of the lineup includes Pat Metheny,Peabo Bryson, Harvey Mason, TajMo: The Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ Band, BJ The Chicago Kid, Melanie Fiona, David Benoit, Joey DeFrancesco + The People, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, Marcus Miller, Dave Koz with Larry Graham, Robert Cray, Norman Brown, Elle Varner, Butterscotch, Joey Alexander, Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars and Maysa.

The Richmond Jazz Festival will take place Aug. 10–13, with performances at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Hippodrome Theater and Hardywood Park Brewery. On Saturday and Sunday, the festival with culminate at Maymont.

This year, the festival will introduce CaRue, a prelude to the festival that features free, live performances by local and regional artists around Carytown, such as the Byrd Theatre.

In addition to live jazz, the festival will feature free wine tastings by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, chef demonstrations, artist meet-and-greets and over 30 regional food and merchandise vendors.

Admission is free for the performances at Hardywood and the Jazz Café at VMFA on Thursday, August 10 and $30, not including fees, for “Homegrown at the Hipp” at the Hippodrome Theater on Friday, August 11.

Early bird single-day passes for the festival on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 are $75, not including fees and early bird weekend passes are $140, not including fees. Early bird passes will be available May 25 through July 6.

Tickets can also be purchased at the gates, but are subject to a rate increase. Check out the festival website for more details. Get your tickets here.

Good Day RVA’s new video for Antiphons’ ‘Tiny Rooms’ highlights one of Virginia’s royal rural escapes

Brad Kutner | March 31, 2017

Topics: Antiphons, Good Day RVA, Italian Renaissance Revival, James H. Dooley, Maymont, Swannanoa Mansion

The Good Day RVA Film collective is back with another stellar video showcasing Virginia’s musical talent and architectural wonder.

This time, the crew of non-profit filmmakers headed out to Swannanoa Mansion with local indie powerhouse Antiphons.

Nestled away in Rockfish Gap on the border of northern Nelson County and Augusta County, Swannanoa Palace is an Italian Renaissance Revival villa built in 1912 by millionaire and philanthropist James H. Dooley. You might recognize Dooley as man behind the mansion at Maymont here in RVA – the Richmond lawyer was obviously financially stacked but at least he had the good sense to invest in some beautiful architecture.

It turns out Tommy Terrell, a member of Antiphons and Good Day RVA, lives close to Swannanoa out in Waynesboro, and it was his idea to film there. The video captures the beauty of the location perfectly (as we’ve come to expect from Good Day) and the audio pics up a bit of that warm reverb as the tunes bounce off the 100+ year old walls. And yes, that’s a Tiffany Glass window behind them.

“Once I saw the giant Tiffany window in the middle of the double staircase, I was sold,” said Chris Damon, one of the founding members of Good Day RVA. “There was a slumber party at Tommy’s the night before, and [photog] Craig (Zirpolo) brought his dog, Nelly.”

You can read more about Antiphons in an interview we ran with them back in RVAMag #27 here, and keep up with Good Day RVA on facebook here.

Words by BK

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