Wow! Words fail me.
How do you describe the Biltmore Estate? Fantastic, amazing, unbelievable, spectacular, outrageous, ritzy, flamboyant, luxurious, opulent are all just poor attempts to describe the Biltmore Estate.
Unless you see it in person you will not believe what an amazing accomplishment building Biltmore really was. And on such a grand scale it stretches the imagination.
Built by George Vanderbilt starting in 1889 it was completed in only six years, with up to 500 skilled & unskilled laborers working on it at any one time. He originally acquired 125,000 acres outside of Asheville, although he eventually sold 87,000 acres to the Federal Government, which became the core of Pisgah National Forest. Well, he started the process and his wife completed the sale after his death from complications following an appendectomy at 51.
The house has 4 acres of floor space spread over 4 floors plus a basement and sub-basement, six stories in all. It consists of 36 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, a 70,000 gallon indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, a two story library, a full sized gymnasium, living space for many of the single servants, a winter garden conservatory, etc., etc., etc.
Technology was state of the art for the late 1800's: 2 elevators, forced air heating, centrally controlled clocks throughout the house and courtyard, fire alarms, and an intercom/paging system called an enunciator and of course hot/cold running water.
Stuffed to the gills with expensive paintings, drawings, and art work of every description (bronzes, marble statues, etc), much of it commissioned just for the Biltmore.
One of the best things MLA and I did was take the "Behind the Scenes" tour, which takes you into many of the areas not included in the public tours. We opted to do this early and ended up with a private tour; only the two of us signed up for that time. We had our own personal tour guide and were able to ask a lot of questions that we might not have asked in a larger group.
How do you describe the Biltmore Estate? Fantastic, amazing, unbelievable, spectacular, outrageous, ritzy, flamboyant, luxurious, opulent are all just poor attempts to describe the Biltmore Estate.
Unless you see it in person you will not believe what an amazing accomplishment building Biltmore really was. And on such a grand scale it stretches the imagination.
Built by George Vanderbilt starting in 1889 it was completed in only six years, with up to 500 skilled & unskilled laborers working on it at any one time. He originally acquired 125,000 acres outside of Asheville, although he eventually sold 87,000 acres to the Federal Government, which became the core of Pisgah National Forest. Well, he started the process and his wife completed the sale after his death from complications following an appendectomy at 51.
The house has 4 acres of floor space spread over 4 floors plus a basement and sub-basement, six stories in all. It consists of 36 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, a 70,000 gallon indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, a two story library, a full sized gymnasium, living space for many of the single servants, a winter garden conservatory, etc., etc., etc.
Technology was state of the art for the late 1800's: 2 elevators, forced air heating, centrally controlled clocks throughout the house and courtyard, fire alarms, and an intercom/paging system called an enunciator and of course hot/cold running water.
Stuffed to the gills with expensive paintings, drawings, and art work of every description (bronzes, marble statues, etc), much of it commissioned just for the Biltmore.
One of the best things MLA and I did was take the "Behind the Scenes" tour, which takes you into many of the areas not included in the public tours. We opted to do this early and ended up with a private tour; only the two of us signed up for that time. We had our own personal tour guide and were able to ask a lot of questions that we might not have asked in a larger group.
One amazing fact was that most of the land acquired had been overused so much there were no mature trees in place. The landscape architect, Frederick Olmstead (the famed landscape architect of Central Park and a consultant for Yosemite landscaping, among other projects) is considered the father of modern forestry, where you always replant anything that you harvest. He was responsible for a plan that resulted in 2.8 million (yes million) trees to be planted. Today the grounds and surrounding countryside (viewed from the loggia in the 3rd picture) appear to be old-growth forests.
MLA and I had a great time exploring and suggest that is you get within 200 miles of Asheville, NC you make the effort to go to the Biltmore. You can read my (hardly adequate) description, you can read the books, you can go to the web site; however nothing compares to seeing this in-person. Highly recommended. And take the "Behind The Scenes" tour.
Until next time -- See Ya!
MLA and I had a great time exploring and suggest that is you get within 200 miles of Asheville, NC you make the effort to go to the Biltmore. You can read my (hardly adequate) description, you can read the books, you can go to the web site; however nothing compares to seeing this in-person. Highly recommended. And take the "Behind The Scenes" tour.
Until next time -- See Ya!
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