They don’t look famous. They just look… big. Bigger than everything around them. Older than they should be. Planted like they were meant to last longer than anyone who put them there. They’re Maymont’s state champion, national champion, and just generally remarkable trees.
In the late 1800s, James and Sallie Dooley didn’t just build a mansion — they built a landscape. They planted trees from around the world, not as decoration, but as long-term features—placed with space, intention, and time in mind.
More than a century later, some of those trees have become the largest known examples of their species. State champions. National champions.
But nothing about them tells you that directly. What you’re actually looking at are not just big trees but:
- A Blue Atlas cedar stretching wider than most houses
- A Darlington oak once recognized as the largest of its kind in the country
- Rare species—cryptomeria, Persian ironwood, European linden—grown to a scale they almost never reach in the wild.
Each one was planted before anyone could know how large it would become. Most landmarks are built. These were grown—with the idea that they might outlast everything around them.
Of course, they’re not in one place. They’re spread out over Maymon’s 100 acres. Look around the Maymont mansion grounds; along Magnolia Drive; and near the Gate House entrance. Ask around at the Nature Center, the Farm or the Mansion. Anyone who works at Maymont can tell you where to start your search. Very few Richmonders know to go on this journey. Now you do!