State

From the owtnied t»0 room wing of the mention l»d* • **) you step directly into the gigont* tw.mining pool, so lorge ond deep thot it served olso 01 a reserve voter supply tor the lire deportment m Cromerton, the tentile community located down the mountoin. Thousands ol eiotic shrubs ond Rowers surround the mom. on (All photos by Robert L Willems) Shades Of The Great Gaftsby The future look* rosy ngnin for Mavnmnl and Cramerton. tty HOBKKT L. WILLIAMS It's not ihe Biltmore House and wasn't intended to be. but Maymont has its own story — a happy, tragic, then once again happy — one. It had its days of spectacular glory, its ghosts, its world-wide splendor, and its decay. Built by Stuart Cramer in the trou¬ bled days just before United States in¬ volvement in World War I. Maymont was visited by only a select few; those who were admitted wound their way three times around Cramer Mountain before finally reaching the topmost point, where the mansion overlooks the rolling hills, fertile fields, and muddy streams of the North Carolina Piedmont. The builder himself was born in Thomasville. educated at the United Stales Naval Academy, and trained as an industrial engineer, de¬ signer. and agriculturist. Stuart Cramer in one of his European trips saw a classic English manor house and decided he wanted one just like it for a summer home, and Maymont was conceived. A few’ months later the dream had become a reality — a spec¬ tacular one. And today many people insist that they have seen the ghosts that inhabit the place and several even insist they have photos of them! The house itself has thirty-eight rooms, numerous fire¬ places. and a swimming pool like something out of "The Great Gatsby"; it is sixty feel wide, seventy-five feet long, and thirteen feet four inches deep. The reason for the odd size and depth is partially explained by the fact that Stuart Cramer also was a powerful textile man with large holdings in the town below Cramer Mountain, and the huge pool was also a reserve water supply for the town's fire department. In the event the mill or one of the mill houses caught on fire, there would be an abundance of water, and since the supply was gravity-operated, there would be no problems with faulty pumps or interrupted electrical ser¬ vices. Tiffany's Decorated Inside the house there are eight huge fireplaces, some that totally dominate one entire wall, and antiques and other memorabilia, collected from all over the world during the Cramers' travels, added to the beauty of the house. The interior decorating was done by Tif¬ fany's of New York. The exterior of the mansion was at least as impressive as the interior. There is the servants’ quarters, a mod¬ est three-story stone house located near the mansion, an orchard of over ten thousand fruit trees, a dairy farm, and extensive endeavors in gardening. The lumber for the house was cut on Cramer Mountain. Thousands of beautiful and exotic flowers grew all around the house and alongside the mile-long driveway that winds three times around the mountain before coming to an end beside the swimming Overlooking the surrounding Piedmont, (hit wot о v inter' t »«nt view (the front) of Moymont, offer winding olong the drivewoy three time* oround Cramer Mountain. 14 THE STATE. JULY 1S*1