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<p class="has-text-align-justify">Swannanoa is one of the few Virginia estates that can compete with the Gilded Age palaces of Newport, Rhode Island, thanks to its Carrara marble, tiered English gardens, and Tiffany stained glass. It was a love ballad written by a wealthy railroad tycoon for his wife. The Italianate palace eventually returned to the family that has held it for three generations after being leased for fifty years to a university and then a monastery.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/64497930-eb2b-44b2-9b64-4db09c345dc1-25-Oddharmonic-PD-Wikimedia.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1793"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oddharmonic / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">Swannanoa has not had a good few years. Since millions were spent on maintenance, the owners' resources have been depleted. But it was insufficient, and the once-proud estate keeps deteriorating. The estate continues to accommodate weekend weddings and eerie sleepovers today. Fortunately, tours are offered, giving travelers a unique chance to legally see a disintegrating piece of history before it is lost.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/c6cfa758-253e-48d1-8382-5215df8e7713-29-WC.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1792"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Colchicine / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">This mansion on a Virginia hillside is breathtaking—or, depending on your perspective, it once was. Despite being in disrepair, Swannanoa Palace, the former summer residence of James &amp; Sallie Mae Dooley, is nonetheless accessible to those who want to explore its groaning and purportedly haunted hallways.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/swannanoa-palace-tiffany-window-grand-staircase-2-afton-va-682x1024.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1795"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">angelaandrieux.com</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">Built in 1912, this magnificent palace was modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome. The interior is decorated with Italian Carrara &amp; Siena marble, while the exterior is made of white Georgia marble. You may still discern remnants of Swant tonoa Palace's former grandeur among the ruin and peeling paint.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/swannanoa-palace-tiffany-window-grand-staircase-3-afton-va-1024x682.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1796"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">angelaandrieux.com</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">The most lavishly decorated floor is, by far, the ground floor. Each room is distinctive, and in the middle is a large staircase leading to the second story, which is finished with a breathtaking Tiffany window showing Sallie Mae.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/swannanoa-palace-garden-fountain-afton-va-1024x682.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1797"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">angelaandrieux.com</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">The Palace's interior becomes less and less ornamented as you ascend. One of the towers was accessible, but the most of the upstairs spaces were off limits to the general public. Although I didn't stay up there for very long, the view from the top of the tower stretched for kilometers. </p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/swannanoa-palace-tiffany-window-grand-staircase-afton-va-edit-1024x683.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1799"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">angelaandrieux.com</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="has-text-align-justify">There was definitely an unpleasant sense up there, despite the fact that it had been considerably reinforced. Ghosts? Maybe… Most likely, it's just old, wobbly floors.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/swannanoa-palace-green-parlor-afton-va-682x1024.jpg" alt="Spooky Swannanoa Marble Mansion" class="wp-image-1798"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">angelaandrieux.com</figcaption></figure>
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<p>Understand Before You Go<br>Interstate 64 traverses the Blue Ridge from east to west at this location in Afton, Virginia, near Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. You must schedule your visit for one of the certain weekend open house dates in order to see anything because the road leading to the house is posted with "no trespassing" signs and you cannot see the house from the road due to the trees.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://animalpond.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/4a7c2927-90f7-438d-aad7-8b8fae0ff2de-27-WC.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1800"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Fopseh / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]</figcaption></figure>
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<p> Make sure you pay for the guided tour, which is provided by the home's owner, who has been doing her best to slowly restore it to its former splendor over the past 20 years.</p>
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<p>Read more : <a href="https://animalpond.com/scientist-from-iran-says-he-has-built-a-time-machine/">Scientist from Iran says he has built a “Time Machine.”</a></p>
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