But that wasn’t the case. Pryor simply had some basic wishes that would require a sizeable structure. He wanted a ballroom for parties, for example—a big space to host charity fund-raisers and to entertain “300 of his closest friends,” jokes Richmond architect Mark Spangler. Pryor also wanted a billiards room, a garden room and a two-story library “like the one they have at the Biltmore.” That grand North Carolina home was an inspiration, as was the Gothic architecture at the University of Richmond, from which both Dennis and Cindy graduated, along with the many Tudor-style homes in Virginia’s capital. And Cindy needed stables for her horses—she’s a world champion quarter horse rider (“hunter under saddle” style, to be specific) and a board member of the Deep Run Hunt Club and the Museum of the Horse, which is a part of the new State Fair of Virginia at The Meadows.
Spangler was hired to design a home to fit Pryor’s vision. After making his calculations, the architect gave Pryor the word: “This thing is about 30,000 square feet—you don’t want a house that big, do you?” (Spangler had never designed anything bigger than 8,000 square feet before.) Pryor’s response was, “Build it.”
Because of the size and complexity of the structure Spangler conceived, a commercial builder, Daniel & Co., was brought in to do the job. They broke ground in late 1996, and more than three years later, the 32,000-square-foot English Tudor manse named Dover Hall was complete. It’s located on 55 acres in Goochland. From the road, the home doesn’t seem so terribly big, but up close, standing in the circular gravel driveway, one half-expects a corpulent Henry VIII to come stomping through the giant 18th-century Gothic front door, muttering about one of his wives.
It’s the rare home that has a two-story library, a three-story stairway chandelier, a genuine Sioux teepee, silk damask wall covering, a British-made conservatory, a fireplace mantel depicting the Norman Conquest, a men’s lounge ceiling covered in Bordeaux velvet, an English pub and a grand gallery containing weapons of antiquity (including a 16th-century mace) and portraits—among them, a large, formal depiction of Lady Henrietta Spencer, a distant relative of Princess Diana. But then, Dover Hall is a rare place—so chock-full of jaw-dropping stuff that it’s not that surprising to learn that an array of 24-inch-thick, 42-foot-long steel beams were needed to support the frame of the house and all that is in it—and, as Pryor notes, “the beams on the third floor are even bigger, to hold up the roof.”
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