Biltmore Estate

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Biltmore house

Biltmore House is a French Renaissance-style mansion near Asheville, North Carolina, built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the United States, at 175,000 square feet. Still owned by the family, it is today one of most dynamic portraits of the Gilded Age.

[edit] History

In the 1880s, at the height of the Gilded Age, George Washington Vanderbilt II, a son of William Henry Vanderbilt, began to make regular visits with his mother to the Asheville area. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to create his own winter estate in the area, as his older brothers and sisters had built opulent summer houses in places such as Newport, Rhode Island and Hyde Park, New York.

Vanderbilt's idea was to replicate the working estates of Europe. He commissioned Richard Morris Hunt, who had previously designed houses for various family members, to design the house in imitation of several Loire Valley chateaux, including the Chateau de Blois. Wanting the best, Vanderbilt also employed Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds, including the deliberately rustic three-mile Approach Road, and Gifford Pinchot to manage the forests. Intending that the estate could be self-supporting, Vanderbilt set up scientific forestry programs, poultry farms, cattle farms, hog farms and a dairy. The estate included its own village and even a church (today Biltmore Village). Family members and friends invited from all over the United States and beyond came to experience the opulent estate with the splendor of Olmsted's sweet-smelling gardens, rich foods at the 64-seat banquet table, and the stunning beauty of Vanderbilt's mountainous grounds.

Vanderbilt paid little attention to the family business or his own investments, and the construction and upkeep of Biltmore depleted much of his inheritance. After Vanderbilt died of complications from an appendectomy in 1914, his widow, Edith Dresser Vanderbilt, sold much of the original 125,000 acres (506 km²) to the federal government, which became the nucleus of Pisgah National Forest. The estate includes approximately 8,000 acres today and is split in half by the French Broad River. It is owned today by The Biltmore Company, which is controlled by Vanderbilt's grandson, William A.V. Cecil. In 1963, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

[edit] Tourist attraction

View of the west side of the house from the spring garden

In an attempt to bolster the depression-riven economy, Vanderbilt's only child, Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil, and husband John Amherst Cecil opened Biltmore House to the public on March 15, 1930.

The house was occupied less and less permanently until 1956, when it was opened to the public as a house museum. Visitors from all over the world continue to be amazed at the 70,000 gallon indoor pool, bowling alley, exercise equipment, library, and other rooms filled with art works, furniture, and novelties such as elevators and an intercom system. It remains a major tourist attraction in western North Carolina, with approximately 1,000,000 visitors each year.

In 2005 the fourth floor of the house was opened. The floor reveals the life of a Biltmore House maid with a Servants’ Hall, Servants’ Bedrooms and Bathrooms, and three house closets. The Architectural Model Room showcases Hunt’s 1889 model of Biltmore House, while the Observatory offers magnificent views of the estate from a central vantage point at the top of the main tower.