Biltmore – The Vanderbilt House – Ken and Phyllis

What if money were no object?

Where would you live?

What kind of house would you have?

George Vanderbilt had those dilemmas.

In 1888, at age 26, George Vanderbilt, the grandson of famed shipping magnate and industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt first visited Asheville, North Carolina. Captivated by the area’s natural beauty, he purchased 125,000 acres to build a country estate.

And, what an estate it is.

The Estate

Inspired by French Renaissance Château’s, the house was started in 1889, but not opened until 1895. And, at that, many of the rooms were not completed for the opening.

While it was being built, over 1000 craftsman including 860 stonemasons worked up to 10 hours per day, six days a week to build the 250 room 178,926 square foot house.

The main floor opens to a grand gallery. To the right is the sunken Winter Garden, surrounded by stone archways with a ceiling of architecturally sculptured wood and multifaceted glass, while to the left is the grand staircase.

Just beyond the Winter Garden is the Banquet Hall with it’s over 70-foot-high barrel-vaulted ceilings, 3 massive fireplaces and its own pipe organ.

The main floor is where the public areas of the house are. They include a games room with pool and billiards, a Tapestry Gallery featuring three 16th-century tapestries, Vanderbilt’s personal Library containing over 10,00 volumes and the Music Room, which was not completed until 1976.

The second and third floors are the personal rooms. It includes a large Living Hall that is an extension of the grand staircase, bedrooms for Vanderbilt and his wife Edith Stuyvesant Dresser – connected by a shared sitting room, and a series of well-appointed suites for invited guests.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the house is the basement area, which is the working area of the house. With an amazingly large kitchen filled with original copper cookware, the pantries, walk-in refrigerators, laundry area and storage areas show the construction of the house. There is a room, used mostly as a storage room, that had been converted to a party room one New Years Eve. The walls were painted by the party goers with themes from Halloween. Once the part was over, the room went back to being a storage room.

Also in the basement was the athletics area, that includes a gym equipped with state-of-the-art equipment (of the day) such as a rowing machine, parallel bars, and a wooden weight set. Most impressively, there is a full swimming pool and separate change areas for men and women.

While it wasn’t particularly busy, our tour of the house still took over an hour and a half, and that was before we went out to the gardens.

The gardens reminded us of those found in places such as Versailles with working greenhouses, including a hot house with tropical plants.

There is also a “village” on the property with a winery, a couple of food outlets, and a bike rental kiosk. We did the complementary wine tasting and because we had our bikes with us we were able to ride around the Estate for a bit.

So, after all of that description, what are our impressions?

Our Impressions

Ken

The house and gardens are incredibly impressive. Like our visits to the Chateaus of Europe, I wonder what it would be like living there, and I can’t say that it would be my type of living.

Perhaps it is my practicality that makes me think of the maintenance and up keep while I look at the impressiveness of the structure. But, if I had the kind of resources Vanderbilt did, who knows what I would think of that.

One thing I do know is that kind of house doesn’t suit my personality. The Vanderbilts were used to entertaining people. I, on the other hand, am more of a quiet home body, so I suspect I would just wander in all the rooms wondering why I had them!

Phyllis

It’s a grand house in a phenomenal setting. The estate’s forested areas and rolling hills, which can be seen from the premiere rooms in the house would calm anyone on their worst day.

While the gardens, hot house and wisteria covered trellis’ are beautiful, the fountain at the front of the property was sad. The lawn is just bare green grass traversing over to a magnificent stair case and stone wall. Perhaps in its day, there was an attempt at a Versailles type of front garden, but it’s really just an empty expanse now.

The house itself reminded me of Downton Abbey’s Hiclere Castle setting. I have toured a few castles in Europe and the Vanderbilt’s were successful in copying much of the space needed for the 19^th century British gentry lifestyle. I could envision Mrs. Padmore busying herself in the kitchen areas.

The style of the library was much like a single room of the first European university library in Coimbra, Portugal. There was a balcony, hidden doors, decoratively bound books and even a register for the lending and return of Vanderbilt’s books. The fireplace and seating areas were a bit more opulent than the university setting, though.

It is a bit sad that the house was only occupied by the family for a bit more than 35 years. The Depression hit the family hard. These days it’s a family owned, well-oiled tourist destination.

There is even a winery selling overpriced, not quite aged wines that they pump out to people who need something with the Biltmore name imprinted on the label.

Thanks to the longtime friends in our “Dinner and Wine Group”, and our friend Rory’s teachings about wine when we were in Italy last summer, we are both able to confidently say the wine was not good.

Once you’re inside the grounds, there is enough to do to fill the better part of the day.

One part I most enjoyed was a bike ride during the sunniest part of the day. I didn’t quite manage even the green labelled mountain bike trails on my commuter bike but the roads and pathways on the whole estate re open to walkers and riders.