At this crossroads at Maymont, several estate roadways meet within a landscape shaped by Dooley Branch and the hilly fall-line terrain. James and Sallie Dooley purchased the 100-acre property in 1886 and transformed it into a showplace estate, adding gardens, architecture, plantings, and bridges of river rock that survive from their time. Magnolia Drive served as the formal entrance road to the Dooleys' home and leads to the Maymont Mansion, the Italian Garden, and other historic estate features, while the original carriage road follows Dooley Branch through wildlife habitats to the Japanese Garden. The forty-acre area north of Dooley Branch was maintained by the Dooleys as naturalistic parkland and now includes the Nature Center and a Farm. The Dooleys imported trees and plants from around the world, creating an arboretum with more than 300 native and exotic specimens, including a National Champion Darlington Oak, Princeton American elms along Magnolia Drive, a tulip poplar that likely predates their ownership, bald cypress, and eastern white pine. The land that became Maymont was originally part of a vast area ruled by Algonquian chief Powhatan, became part of Henrico County in the 1600s, and was used as farmland throughout the 1800s. Land north of the property was once New Reservoir Park and was later renamed William Byrd Park, and annexations in 1906 and 1914 brought the entire area within the city limits, marked by granite stones carved “C. L. 1908.” The Dooleys left Maymont to the city, and it opened to the public in 1926. Outdoor wildlife exhibits were introduced in the 1950s through the leadership of William B. Thalhimer, Sr., and today feature native Virginia species including American bison, gray fox, bobcat, and birds of prey, along with sika deer introduced from Asia to Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the 1920s; many of the animals are injured or orphaned and Maymont serves as a sanctuary for them. The Robins Nature Center presents the natural environment along the James River through aquaria, river otters, turtles, fish, snakes, and environmental education programs that promote respect for animals and conservation.
