University of Virginia Library

Swannanoa: Fairy World Atop 'The Sacred Mountain'

From The Brochure

Thus the beginning of
undoubtedly strangest tourist
attraction in the Charlottesville
area; Swannanoa, headquarters
of the University of Science
and Philosophy, perched on
the top of Afton Mountain.

Basically, Swannanoa is the
life and love of Walter and Lao
Russell, their gift to the world.
For a dollar, Lao will invite
you inside, fifty cents if you
just wish to tour the gardens.
For one hundred dollars, Lao
will teach you the secrets of
the Universe, through the
courtesy of the U.S. Postal
Service.

The Palace

The Palace itself is well
worth the dollar. Though the
Italian Renaissance style is
somewhat incongruous on the
top of Afton Mountain, the
building is strikingly handsome
nonetheless. The gardens are
carefully structured, though in
a mild state of despair. The
view, of course, is magnificent.

Immediately inside the
front door the romance of
Swannanoa diminishes. A large
table runs nearly the full length
of the room and is filled with
postcards, pamphlets and every
book written by Walter and/or
Lao Russell, all for sale at
popular prices.

The Tour

The guide discreetly grabs
your dollar then launches into
her spiel, leading you from
room to room all the while
gushing of the greatness of
Walter Russell. One sees letters
written to Russell from
Rudyard Kipling, Theodore
Dreiser, Eugene O'Neil, Cecil
B. DeMille, even King Albert of
Belgium. Startling scientific
treatises, medals, architectural
plans and photos of completed
buildings, nearly thirty busts of
such men as Thomas Edison,
George Gershwin, Franklin
Roosevelt, Joseph Auerbach,
and eight alone of Mark Twain.

'The Four Freedoms'

This Is One Of The Four Statues By Walter Russell In The Gardens

The remainder of the first
floor can best be described as a
monument to the life and
works of Walter Russell. His
painting on the walls, his
sculpture in every corner, and a
multitude of articles under
glass tabletops.

From The Brochure

The mind boggles at the
greatness of Walter Russell. But
finally the sixty four dollar
question crops up: If this guy
was so great, why haven't I
heard of him?

A closer look at things
reveals the answer. The
painting is at best mediocre;
the sculpture is good, but so
are countless thousands of
others; the letters from all
those luminaries are seen as
superficial when one looks past
the signature. Walter Russell
was good at a great many
things, but great at nothing,
except perhaps figure skating.

The brochure refers to him
as "the most versatile man in
America." The guide tells you

that the thirty six tons of art
work at Swannanoa represent
only two per cent of Russell's
output. Rather than versatile,
the word to describe Russell is
prolific. Rather than great, he
was fast.

Lao seems to be cast in
much the same mold. She met
Walter at the base of the Great
Pyramid, he the older and
wiser, she young and
precocious. Lao now runs the
dynasty that she and Walter

built, consisting mainly of
Swannanoa and the
management of their
correspondence school.

From The Brochure

She too sculpts, paints, and
writes in voluminous quantities,
though far from surpassing
Walter's total. She is the
gracious host of Swannanoa,
and her presence is nearly as
pervasive as Walter's when one
enters the house.

Lao's greatest achievement
is the thirty foot statue of
Christ overlooking the gardens.
But, as with all their works of
art, "Christ of the Blue Ridge"
took only months to create
and it shows.

From The Brochure

Talking with Lao Russell is
an enjoyable though confusing
experience. She is a very open
person. Our special tour of the
second floor included her
office, study, bedroom, and
even her bathroom. She
obviously has a great love for
her home, constantly pointing
various articles with the
constant phrase "Isn't that
lovely?"

She speaks of everything,
dipping occasionally into her
philosophy. "...each man is an
indivisible extension of every
other man, as the branches of a
tree are bound together to
express the whole of life, and
that we cannot hurt out fellow
man without equally hurting
ourselves."

Library

Her library is small and
varied, and she dismisses it by
saying "I never have time to
read anything except my
mail." Most of her time is
spent writing, her latest effort
being an attempt to explain
reincarnation scientifically.

The highlight of the upstairs
tour is the unlocking of
Walter's private studio. It has
been untouched since his death
in 1963, with unfinished
paintings and sculpture
crowding the little room. His
even smaller library runs from
"Basic Organic Chemistry" to
"I Rode In a Flying Saucer."

'Paintings'

Against one wall lean
several scientific "paintings".
These are intricate drawings of
such phenomena as "How the
Cosmic Life Force Aids the
Circulation of Blood." Lao
remarks that scientists from all
over the world have seen these
and walk away amazed.

One painting depicts a nude
female form reaching up to the
dark blue cosmos. She is
orange, as are the mass of
bodies she stands upon. There
are orange bubble-like shapes
floating in the background.
Lao risquely remarks that she
would like to put the painting
downstairs.

Gardens

"In Swannanoa gardens you
can dream your dreams to the
rhythms of old world music."
A giant loudspeaker sits on top
of the palace and broadcasts
organ music over the gardens.
The music is occasionally
interspersed with
announcements from the tour
guide inside.

This typifies the basic
problem with Swannanoa. The
Russells, to their credit, took
much time and money to
restore Swannanoa to its
opulence. But they also filled it
with their "objects de art" and
gave the place and undeniably
tacky appearance.

Another problem is trying
to come to grips with the
philosophy of Swannanoa. All
of the Russell books are in the
University library, and
surprisingly many of them
were checked out this week.

Titles run from "Atomic
Suicide" and "There Is No
Death", to "The World
Crisis-Its Explanation and
Solution" and "Love." The
definitive work on Walter
Russell is entitled "The Man
Who Tapped The Secrets of the
Universe," by Glenn Clark.

Philosophy

"The One-World Purpose" is
a good example of the Russell
philosophy. Subtitled "A Plan
to Dissolve War by a Power
More Mighty than War," it
advocates "world peace
through world balance." The
world's great need is "rhythmic
balanced interchange in all
human relations."

The source of all
knowledge, at least for the
Russells, is a sort of cosmic
overmind, presumably the
same one that Edgar Cayce
claimed to tap when entering
his famous trances. The
Russell's also believe that the

cause of all their innate,
untrained "talent" lies in
reincarnation. Walter, for
example, was an artist,
sculptor, scientist, etc., during
his former lives, hence his

'Christ Of The Blue Ridge'

This Thirty Foot High Work Overlooks The Gardens At Swannanoa

seemingly inherent ability in
these fields.

The most striking feature of
all their philosophy is it's
basic simpleness. The majority
of Lao's creeds are flowery
rephrasings of the words of
Christ, laced with a not so
healthy dose of mysto-cosmocism.
In fact, their most
often quoted bit of advice is
simply "Love ye one another."

If you think Swannanoa is
amazing, send them some
money so that they can build.
Project No. 2.

From 'The One-World Purpose'

The shrine is to be 630 feet
tall, topped off with a large
size version of "Christ of the
Blue Ridge." Inside an
auditorium will seat two to
three thousand, while countless
of the faithful can gather
outside on the mountainside.

"The manner in which
Swannanoa came into being
reads like a fairy tale." So
reads the brochure and it is
very true. Swannanoa is a fairy
land, so completely divorced
from the real world that the
great dreams of Walter and Lao
Russell seem almost possible
while standing there looking
out at the mountains.

But the visitor must
unfortunately come down the
mountain. Lao Russell does
not.