traveled Toler’s Ferry Road you’ve seen it, and may have wondered for an instant what the
governor’s mansion is doing this far from Richmond.
Well, Dora is for sale. It is over 12,000 square feet in size, sits on nearly 12 acres, and comes
with a shady history that Mary and husband, John, have tried to reverse by showering it
with 10 years of loving care. Like their dogs, the house has responded. And, like the dogs, it
desperately needed their healing hands to thrive.
The original owner of the house, Dorothy Saunders, is gone now – she died. But most folks
around Smith Mountain Lake and the Huddleston area remember Dorothy and all the
newspaper accounts of what happened inside the mansion that was named for her.
Some say that Dorothy built the house as part of a divorce settlement to spite her ex-husband.
Others say it was her life-long dream. At any rate, she ran out of money before the place was
completed. Is it any wonder? There are 16 rooms, marble touches everywhere you look, 12-
inch carved moldings, 12-foot high ceilings, 9-foot high windows, solid wood custom doors,
African mahogany floors, 14-foot high mahogany double front doors, an all-brick exterior,
dental molding everywhere, 4.5 baths, 5 fireplaces, and an elevator, not to mention the
expansive staircase just inside the front doors.
During construction of the house, when Dorothy fell on hard times and was unable to pay
contractors for their work, threats were made, and shots fired, some of which actually struck
the front of the house. Dorothy tried to sell, but although there was a lot of interest she could
not find a buyer. Probably because the house was unfinished and the scruffy, bare yard made
the place look dismal and awkward, like a girl in a fancy French gown with curlers in her hair
and no shoes.
Then, Dorothy and her best friend and business associate, who was also a resident at the
house, got into trouble with the law. According to newspaper accounts of the trial and the
ultimate conviction of the two women, they fleeced two elderly sisters out of over $300,000,
leaving the sisters destitute. They reportedly even moved the sisters in with them and
confiscated their Social Security checks. Both women ultimately plead guilty to two counts
of fraud and one count of Social Security theft. They were sentence to 37 months in prison.
In 2001, a court-ordered auction took place at the mansion. It was described by one local
resident as “the social event of the season”. Hundreds of bargain hunters, and the curious,
“All my children
have paws,” she
likes to say.
Discover Smith Mountain Lake
Winter 2015
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