Biltmore Estate

Most of the time when we travel to and from the east coast we have a schedule...the urge to return to The Pearl or the tug to our heart strings to see our family, especially our grandchildren. This trip was on our way home from spending Thanksgiving with our family in Pennsylvania we decided to take a side trip to explore Asheville, North Carolina and the Biltmore Estate...we had a wonderful time.

Biltmore Facts:

• George Washington Vanderbilt built the Biltmore Mansion between 1889 and 1895. It’s the largest private home in the United States. 
• The house took six years to complete and employed over 1,000 men during its construction.
• The house was named Biltmore - from “Bildt”, the Dutch town where Vanderbilt’s ancestors originated, and “more”, an old English word for open, rolling land.
• George Vanderbilt hired two of the most distinguished designers of the 19th century to create his dream: architect Richard Morris Hunt (designed the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Statue of Liberty base) and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted (designed Central Park). 
• The four-story stone house with a 780-foot façade was designed to rival the surrounding mountains in grandeur.
• To accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of building a European chateau in rural North Carolina, Hunt focused on efficiency. The land in front of the home site was transformed into a mini-town with buildings and small factories that produced materials necessary for the construction of the house. 
• An on-site kiln produced up to 32,000 bricks daily, and a woodworking factory supplied oak and walnut for the house’s floors and walls.
• Indiana limestone (almost 10 million pounds), Italian marble and other supplies were shipped into Asheville by rail. Vanderbilt built a private railroad track from the village depot up to the construction site. The 3-mile route eventually became what is now the Approach Road that leads guests to Biltmore House.
• The Biltmore Estate cost approximately $5 million to build in the late 1800s, in today’s dollars that would be around $90 million.  
• When the Biltmore House opened to friends and family on Christmas Eve in 1895 the home contained more than 175,000 square feet (four acres). It had 33 bedrooms, 65 fireplaces, 43 bathrooms, three kitchens, electric elevators, bowling alley, indoor swimming pool and a winter garden. 
• The house had underwater lights in its indoor pool at a time when many people still used candles and oil and gas lamps for light. 
• The house was wired with both AC and DC current because nobody was sure which would become the norm.
• The Banquet Hall is 74’ by 42’, with a seven-story high ceiling and triple fireplace. The dinner table could seat as many as 64 guests. The meals served there were typically 8 courses and required 15 utensils per person to eat.
• The Biltmore Estate was originally 125,000 acres. After George Vanderbilt’s death, according to his wishes, Edith sold 87,000 acres of the original Biltmore Estate to the U.S. Government Forest Services to form the Pisgah National Forest.   
• In 1930, Cornelia (Vanderbilt’s daughter) and John Cecil opened Biltmore House to the public, hoping to increase local tourism during the Depression. 
• In 1942, during World War II, Biltmore House stored priceless art from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. 
• Today the estate covers over 8,000 acres and includes 75-acres of formal gardens, hotels, a winery (most visited winery in the US), several restaurants, a 250-acre deer preserve and a conservatory. It draws over a million visitors a year.
• The Easter Egg hunt at the estate draws approximately 5,000 children each year.
• There are more than 6,000 weddings on the Biltmore Estate each year.

The Biltmore at night

A few of the guest rooms 

Winter Garden: This glass-roofed room was considered stylish in the Victoria era and provided a place to display exotic plants.

The Library was designed around the gorgeous 18th century ceiling painting by Pelligrini. Titled “The Chariot of Aurora,” it was originally located in a palace in Venice, Italy. The painting is 64’ long by 32’ wide, consisting of 13 separate canvases, the central scene surrounded by 12 smaller paintings.

The Vanderbilt library houses 23,000 books. It also features 16th century tapestries.

At Christmas time approximately 15,000 strings of lights are used, as well as 100 evergreen trees, and 53 indoor trees to decorate...here are just a few of the beautiful trees.

The massive stone spiral staircase has 102 steps. 

In the center of the staircase, suspended by a single bolt is an iron chandelier containing 72 electric light bulbs. 

What an amazing view the Vanderbilts had from their estate

Biltmore Conservatory was full of beautiful flowers...many stacked up to look like Christmas tress. The outside gardens were bare, but inside the plants were amazing.

Trail to Bass Pond and boat house

Biltmore Floor plans 

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