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Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore House is a French Renaissance-inspired chateau near Asheville, North Carolina built during the Gilded Age by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the US, at 175,000 square feet with over 250 rooms. Behind some walls are secret passageways to various rooms. Their reasoning is unclear, but it is apparent that they were used.
The idea behind the estates creation was Vanderbilt's desire to replicate the working estates of Europe. He commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design the house in imitation of several Loire Valley chateaux, including the Chateau de Blois. Vanderbilt definitely wanted grander, thus employed Fredrick Law Olmsted to design the grounds, including the deliberately rustic three-mile Approach Road, and Gifford Pinchot to manage the forests. Vanderbilt was a conservationist and believed in building a residence that could be self-supported. Vanderbilt established scientific forestry programs, poultry farms, cattle farms, hog farms and a dairy. During the years that the residence was occupied by the Vanderbilts, family members and friends from all over the US and from around the world came to experience the luxurious estate with it’s sweet-smelling gardens, rich foods at the 64-seat banquet table, and the stunning beauty of Vanderbilt's mountainous grounds.
Unfortunately much of Vanderbilt’s wealth was depleted due to poor investments, over zealous spending, and poor business skills. The mere construction and upkeep of the estate became too exhausting financially for him to maintain. After Vanderbilt died of complications from an emergency appendectomy in 1914, his widow finalized the sale of most of the original 125,000 acres. What remains today is an estate that covers approximately 8,000 acres. The estate is still owned by the Biltmore Company, which is controlled by Vanderbilt’s great-grandson, William A.V. Cecil II. Because of his shrewed marketing initiatives and immersed attention to customer service, he has turned a potentially large debt left by his great grandfather into a profitable museum that sells more ticket annually than Colonial Williamsburg.
Readers of the book, Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Became an American Icon, will be amazed at how much detail was put into the estate’s construction.
1. Rickman, Ellen Erwin. Image of America: Biltmore Estate. South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.
Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore House is a French Renaissance-inspired chateau near Asheville, North Carolina built during the Gilded Age by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the US, at 175,000 square feet with over 250 rooms. Behind some walls are secret passageways to various rooms. Their reasoning is unclear, but it is apparent that they were used.
The idea behind the estates creation was Vanderbilt's desire to replicate the working estates of Europe. He commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design the house in imitation of several Loire Valley chateaux, including the Chateau de Blois. Vanderbilt definitely wanted grander, thus employed Fredrick Law Olmsted to design the grounds, including the deliberately rustic three-mile Approach Road, and Gifford Pinchot to manage the forests. Vanderbilt was a conservationist and believed in building a residence that could be self-supported. Vanderbilt established scientific forestry programs, poultry farms, cattle farms, hog farms and a dairy. During the years that the residence was occupied by the Vanderbilts, family members and friends from all over the US and from around the world came to experience the luxurious estate with it’s sweet-smelling gardens, rich foods at the 64-seat banquet table, and the stunning beauty of Vanderbilt's mountainous grounds.
Unfortunately much of Vanderbilt’s wealth was depleted due to poor investments, over zealous spending, and poor business skills. The mere construction and upkeep of the estate became too exhausting financially for him to maintain. After Vanderbilt died of complications from an emergency appendectomy in 1914, his widow finalized the sale of most of the original 125,000 acres. What remains today is an estate that covers approximately 8,000 acres. The estate is still owned by the Biltmore Company, which is controlled by Vanderbilt’s great-grandson, William A.V. Cecil II. Because of his shrewed marketing initiatives and immersed attention to customer service, he has turned a potentially large debt left by his great grandfather into a profitable museum that sells more ticket annually than Colonial Williamsburg.
Readers of the book, Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Became an American Icon, will be amazed at how much detail was put into the estate’s construction.
1. Rickman, Ellen Erwin. Image of America: Biltmore Estate. South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.