Biltmore Estate

The Biltmore Estate is the largest residential home ever constructed in America. It was initially commissioned in 1889 by George Washington Vanderbilt, heir to the historic Vanderbilt fortune. He wanted to create a mansion in the European château-style, which he remembered from his travels abroad. Vanderbilt hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the house and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead to create the grounds.

The final home contained 250 rooms, including forty-three bathrooms and thirty-five bedrooms. It featured a first floor with areas for entertaining guests, including a ballroom and kitchens. The second floor was comprised of living areas, including Vanderbilt’s personal living quarters and a section constructed for his mother. The third and fourth floors of the mansion were designed as servant’s quarters, kitchens, and storage.

In the twenty-first century, Biltmore Estate is maintained as a historic museum and tourist attraction, no longer serving as a residence for the Vanderbilt family. The grounds now include a winery, shops, a spa, and many other amenities for visitors.

Background

George Washington Vanderbilt was born in 1862 to William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt family had been successful farmers after they immigrated to America, except for George Washington Vanderbilt’s grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built a ferry service on the New York Bay. He had then invested the profits from that company in the rapidly growing railroad industry. His success made the Vanderbilt family one of the wealthiest in America. William Henry Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt’s father, doubled the family’s fortune during his lifetime.

George Washington Vanderbilt was the youngest of eight children. He was interested in the arts from a young age, spending much of his time reading books and collecting other works of art. He had a personal library constructed in his family’s mansion in Manhattan. When he was twenty-five years old, Vanderbilt found an area that he liked in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. He decided to build a personal mansion in the region and hired the famous American architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Construction on Biltmore House, his future mansion, began in 1889. It initially moved slowly, though this is partly because Vanderbilt had decided to turn a rural area into a full estate. In addition to the construction of the mansion itself, his dream home included landscaped woodlands, gardens, and farms. To help him accomplish these goals, Vanderbilt added famed landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead to his team.

The architecture of the four-story mansion was to be modeled after buildings constructed in the French Renaissance. In the past, Vanderbilt had traveled through Europe and wanted to bring European architectural styles to the United States. In 1895, six years after construction on the estate began, Vanderbilt opened the estate to his friends and family. At this point, the home itself was mostly finished. However, construction work continued on the grounds surrounding the mansion. Construction of the primary dairy and horse barn would not begin until 1900. Vanderbilt unexpectedly passed away from surgical complications in 1914.

Overview

Following Vanderbilt’s death, the Biltmore Estate remained in control of the Vanderbilt family. However, the family sold some of the surrounding lands, such as Biltmore Village. Subsequent generations of Vanderbilts lived in the home until the 1950s, although it was also opened to the public to bolster tourism to the Asheville, North Carolina area in the 1930s. Since the 1950s, the Biltmore Estate has operated as a historic house museum. The organization that owns and manages Biltmore Estate, the Biltmore Company, has remained in the control of the descendants of Vanderbilt through the twenty-first century. The Biltmore Company employs more than 2,400 people to maintain the mansion and grounds that make up the Biltmore Estate.

At the time of its construction, the Biltmore House was the largest privately owned residence in the United States. The estate has maintained that prestigious title into the modern era. The mansion was constructed with inspiration drawn from French Gothic architecture. Many of the decorations were imported from Europe or inspired by objects that Vanderbilt and Hunt had seen during their travels. The mansion’s three primary floors feature a 375-foot- (114-meter-) long façade constructed from Indiana limestone and topped with a slate roof.

The façade is asymmetrical, with a large entrance tower located in the center. Lateral wings project from the entrance tower, providing guests with a central location from which to navigate the expansive mansion. This tower features a large archway that serves as the primary entrance for Biltmore House and is crowned by European-style gargoyles.

Like many European château-style homes, Biltmore House features a steeply pitched roof. A fourth story is located at attic-level behind the roof. The house also features numerous spires, finials, turrets, and other pieces of decorative architecture that are reminiscent of historic European buildings.

At the time of its completion, the mansion contained 250 rooms. This included forty-three bathrooms, thirty-five bedrooms, and sixty-five fireplaces. The first floor has rooms for entertaining guests, including leisure and dining rooms. On the second floor was Vanderbilt’s personal bedroom, which was located in the center of the rear façade, overlooking a large deer park. Other living rooms, including a bedroom suite constructed specifically for Vanderbilt’s mother, were also on the second floor. On the third floor and attic-level fourth floor were kitchens, pantries, storage room, and servants’ quarters. The interior of the mansion also included several notable rooms designed to serve as amenities for residents and guests. These included a bowling alley, a full gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool, a large library, a tapestry gallery, a banquet hall, a music room, and a salon.

Throughout the early 2020s, Biltmore has continued to be maintained as a historic site and an event-hosting destination. Tours of the estate are offered to guests, and the estate is home to many businesses. Guests of Biltmore Estate may hike through the gardens and grounds surrounding the mansion, eat at the restaurants and winery, or spend their time at the spa and shops.

Bibliography

“10 Facts About Biltmore.” Biltmore, 22 Mar. 2024, www.biltmore.com/blog/10-fast-facts-about-biltmore. Accessed 14 May 2021.

“Biltmore Estate & George Vanderbilt History.” Romantic Asheville, www.romanticasheville.com/biltmorececil.htm. Accessed 6 May 2021.

“Biltmore House.” SAH Archipedia, 2021, sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NC-01-021-0016. Accessed 6 May, 2021.

“Estate History.” Biltmore, 2021, www.biltmore.com/our-story/estate-history/. Accessed 6 May 2021.

“George Washington Vanderbilt Family History.” The Blue Ridge Higherlander, theblueridgehighlander.com/Biltmore‗Estate/Vanderbilt‗family‗history.php. Accessed 14 May 2024.

Hanrahan, Kathy. “Biltmore Estate Welcomes Christmas Tree, Kicks Off Holiday Season.” WCNC, 1 Nov. 2023, www.wcnc.com/article/life/holidays/biltmore-estate-christmas-tree-raising-2023-holiday-season-begins/275-850adb9b-ffa1-4cc9-8f9f-97ab95281f43. Accessed 14 May 2024.

“Outdoor Adventures.” Biltmore, 2021, www.biltmore.com/visit/itineraries/outdoor-adventures/. Accessed 5 May 2021.

“Our Story.” Biltmore, 2021, www.biltmore.com/our-story/. Accessed 6 May 2021.

Van Liefde, Lisa. “Chateau Architecture—The Biltmore.” Monarch Stone International, 16 Dec. 2014, www.monarchstoneinternational.com/chateau-architecture-the-biltmore/. Accessed 6 May 2021.