Biltmore Estate facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Biltmore Estate
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Biltmore Estate in Buncombe County, North Carolina
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| Location | Buncombe County, North Carolina, U.S. |
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| Built | 1889–95 |
| Architect | Richard Morris Hunt (house) Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape) |
| Architectural style | Châteauesque |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000586 |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
The Biltmore Estate is a huge historic house and a popular place to visit in Asheville, North Carolina. The main house, called Biltmore House or Biltmore Mansion, looks like a French castle. It was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. It is the biggest privately owned house in the United States. It has a massive 178,926 sq ft (16,622.8 m2) of floor space! The house is still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants. It is a great example of the fancy homes built during the Gilded Age, a time when many wealthy families built grand estates.
Contents
History of Biltmore Estate
In the 1880s, during a time called the Gilded Age (when many rich people built huge homes), George Washington Vanderbilt II often visited the Asheville area. He loved the beautiful scenery and the climate. Because of this, he decided to build a large summer house there. He called it his "little mountain escape." His brothers and sisters had already built their own fancy summer homes in places like Newport, Rhode Island.
Building the Estate
Vanderbilt named his new estate Biltmore. This name combines De Bilt, which was where his family came from in the Netherlands, with more, an old English word for "moor" (open, rolling land). Vanderbilt bought a huge amount of land, about 125,000 acres (506 km2). This included almost 700 different pieces of land, like farms and even cemeteries.
Building the house started in 1889. To help with such a big project, a woodworking factory and a brick kiln were built right on the property. The kiln could make 32,000 bricks every day! A 3-mile (5 km) railroad track was also built to bring materials to the site. About 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons worked on the main house. Vanderbilt traveled overseas a lot to buy decorations for his new home. He brought back thousands of items, like tapestries, carpets, prints, and other beautiful objects. These items dated from the 15th to the late 19th century.
From the 1890s to the 1950s
George Vanderbilt opened his amazing estate on Christmas Eve in 1895. Family and friends from all over the country came to enjoy the house and outdoor activities. The mansion cost about $5 million to build back then, which would be like $180 million today. Famous guests over the years included writers Edith Wharton and Henry James, and even U.S. presidents. George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in Paris in 1898. Their only child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born at Biltmore in 1900. She grew up on the estate.
Running the estate was very expensive. George Vanderbilt decided to sell about 87,000 acres (350 km2) of land to the government. After Vanderbilt's unexpected death in 1914 from an illness, his wife Edith finished the sale. She wanted the land to stay natural, just as her husband had wished. This land became the start of the Pisgah National Forest. Edith Vanderbilt also sold other parts of the estate, like Biltmore Estate Industries in 1917 and Biltmore Village in 1921. She lived in a smaller apartment in the house until her daughter Cornelia married John Francis Amherst Cecil in 1924. Cornelia and John had two sons, who were born at Biltmore in the same room as their mother.
During the Great Depression, Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930. They hoped this would bring tourists and help the estate financially. Biltmore closed during World War II. In 1942, many valuable paintings and sculptures were moved to the estate from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This was done to protect them in case of an attack on the United States. The Music Room, which was not finished, was used to store these artworks until 1944. These included famous works by Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt, Raphael, and Anthony van Dyck.
After Cornelia and John separated in 1934, Cornelia left the estate and never returned. However, John Cecil continued to live there until he died in 1954. Their oldest son, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, lived in parts of the house until 1956. After that, Biltmore House stopped being a family home and became a historic museum. Their younger son, William A. V. Cecil Sr., came back to the estate in the late 1950s. He worked with his brother to solve the estate's money problems. They wanted to make it a successful business, just as their grandfather had planned.
From the 1960s to Today
William Cecil took over the estate when his mother, Cornelia, passed away in 1976. His brother, George, inherited the dairy farm, which became a separate business called Biltmore Farms.
In 1995, when the estate celebrated its 100th birthday, William Cecil gave control of the company to his son, William A. V. Cecil Jr. The Biltmore Company is still owned by the family. The Biltmore Estate covers about 8,000 acres (3,200 ha). Only a small part of it is inside the city of Asheville.
The estate was named a National Historic Landmark in 1963. It is still a very popular place for tourists in western North Carolina. About 1.4 million people visit it every year.
After William A. V. Cecil and his wife Mimi Cecil passed away in 2017, their daughter Dini Pickering became the board chair. Their son Bill Cecil is now the chief executive officer. The house itself is valued at $157.2 million.
Architecture of Biltmore House
Vanderbilt hired a famous New York architect named Richard Morris Hunt to design the house. Hunt had designed other homes for the Vanderbilt family before. He designed Biltmore in the Châteauesque style, which means it looks like a French Renaissance castle. Vanderbilt and Hunt visited several real French castles in 1889. They looked at places like Château de Blois and Château de Chambord in France, and Waddesdon Manor in England. These castles had steep roofs, towers, and lots of carved decorations.
Outside the House
Hunt placed the four-story house, made of Indiana Limestone, to face east. The front of the house is 375-foot (114 m) long and fits well with the mountains behind it. The front looks balanced but not perfectly symmetrical. It has two parts that stick out, connecting to the main entrance tower. On the left is an open loggia (a covered walkway), and on the right is a windowed arcade that holds the Winter Garden. The entrance tower has many windows with fancy carved frames. These carvings include shapes like trefoils, flowers, and even gargoyles and grotesques (carved figures). The main staircase on the east side is very impressive. It has a three-story, winding railing with carved statues of St. Louis and Joan of Arc. These were made by a sculptor named Karl Bitter.
The south side of the house is the smallest. It has three large dormer windows and a round tower. A garden structure called an arbor is attached to the house. You can reach it from the library on the ground floor. On the north side of the house, Hunt put the stables and carriage house. This protected the house and gardens from the wind. This 12,000 sq ft (1,100 m2) area held Vanderbilt's horses and his twenty carriages.
The back of the house, facing west, is simpler than the front. It has two matching round towers in the center. These connect to the south tower with an open loggia. This loggia lets the main rooms of the house have views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The ceiling of the loggia is decorated with terracotta tiles in a herringbone pattern. The columns were carved to catch the sunlight in different ways. The bottom part of the house has a rough stone look, which is different from the smooth limestone used on the rest of the house.
The very steep roof has sixteen chimneys. It is covered with slate tiles that were put on one by one. Each tile was drilled and wired to the steel frame of the attic. Copper flashing was used to stop water from getting in. The fancy decorations on the roof's ridge had George Vanderbilt's initials and symbols from his family crest.
Inside the House
Biltmore House has 4 acres (1.6 ha) of floor space and 250 rooms! This includes 35 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. It also had new inventions for the 1800s, like an electric Otis elevator, forced-air heating, central clocks, fire alarms, and a call bell system. Biltmore House had electricity from the very beginning. Because electricity was less safe back then, the house had six separate sections divided by brick fire walls to prevent fires from spreading.
First Floor
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The main rooms of the house are on the ground floor. To the right of the marble Entrance Hall is the Winter Garden. It is a sunken, octagonal room surrounded by stone arches. The ceiling is made of carved wood and glass. In the middle is a marble fountain sculpture called Boy Stealing Geese by Karl Bitter. On the walls outside the Winter Garden are copies of the Parthenon frieze from ancient Greece. The Banquet Hall is the biggest room in the house, measuring 42 ft × 72 ft (13 m × 22 m). It has a 70-foot (21 m) high, curved ceiling. The table can seat 64 guests! The room is decorated with rare Flemish tapestries and a huge fireplace. At the other end of the hall is a gallery with a large pipe organ. The Music Room was not finished until 1976. It has a fireplace designed by Hunt and a print of a large artwork by Albrecht Dürer called the Triumphal Arch.
To the left of the entrance hall is the 90-foot (27 m) long Tapestry Gallery. This leads to the Library, which has three 16th-century tapestries. These tapestries show "The Triumph of Virtue Over Vice." Other walls have family portraits by famous artists like John Singer Sargent. The two-story Library holds over 10,000 books in eight languages. This shows George Vanderbilt's wide interests in literature, art, history, and gardening. The library also has a secret passage that leads to the guest rooms.
The second-floor balcony is reached by a fancy walnut spiral staircase. The room's Baroque style is made even richer by the dark walnut wood and the ceiling painting. This painting, The Chariot of Aurora, was brought by Vanderbilt from a palace in Venice, Italy. It is a very important work by the artist Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.
Second Floor
You reach the second floor by the Grand Staircase. It has 107 steps that spiral around a four-story, iron chandelier with 72 light bulbs. The Living Hall on the second floor is like an extension of the grand staircase. It is a formal hall and portrait gallery. It was put back to its original look in 2013. Many large paintings are displayed here. These include two portraits by John Singer Sargent of Biltmore's architect, Richard Morris Hunt, and its landscaper, Frederick Law Olmsted. George Vanderbilt asked for these paintings for his home. Nearby, in the south tower, is George Vanderbilt's fancy bedroom with furniture designed by Hunt. His bedroom connects to his wife's oval-shaped bedroom in the north tower. Her room is in the Louis XV style. They are connected by a sitting room with carved oak panels and a detailed ceiling.
This floor also has several guest rooms, including:
- the Damask Room, with silk curtains and special wallpaper;
- the Claude Room, named after one of Vanderbilt's favorite artists, Claude Lorrain;
- the Tyrolean Chimney Room, which has a special fireplace made from a type of tile oven that held heat for a long time; and
- the Louis XV Room, which is the most grand. It is named for its architectural style and furniture. This suite was opened to the public in 2011 after being restored.
Third and Fourth Floors
The third floor has several guest rooms. Their names often describe the furniture or the artist whose work decorated them. The fourth floor has 21 bedrooms. These were used by housemaids, laundresses, and other female servants. Also on the fourth floor is an Observatory with a circular staircase. This leads to an iron balcony and the rooftop. From here, Vanderbilt could look out over his estate. Male servants did not live here. They had rooms above the stables and carriage house.
Bachelors' Wing
The Billiard Room has a fancy plaster ceiling and rich oak wood panels. It had both a custom-made pool table and a carom table (a table without pockets). This room was mostly for men, but ladies were also welcome. Secret door panels on either side of the fireplace led to the private rooms of the Bachelors' Wing. Female guests and staff were not allowed in this area. This wing included the Smoking Room, which was common in country houses, and the Gun Room. The Gun Room held hunting trophies and George Vanderbilt's gun collection.
Basement Fun
The basement level had many activity rooms. These included an indoor, 70,000 U.S. gallons (260,000 L; 58,000 imp gal) heated swimming pool with underwater lighting. There was also a bowling alley and a gymnasium with modern fitness equipment for the time. The main service areas of the house were also in the basement. This included the main kitchen, pastry kitchen, and rotisserie kitchen. There were also walk-in refrigerators that used an early form of cooling. The servants' dining hall, laundry rooms, and extra bedrooms for staff were also located here.
Conservatory
The conservatory is a large greenhouse filled with many flowers and trees. It also has a fun elevated model railway.
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Conservatory in 2023
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Model railway
Park and Gardens
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Vanderbilt wanted his home to be surrounded by a beautiful park. So, he hired a famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, to design the grounds. Olmsted saw that much of the 125,000 acres (195 sq mi; 510 km2) of land was in poor condition. He suggested having a park around the house, farms along the river, and replanting the rest as a forest for timber. Vanderbilt agreed to this plan. Gifford Pinchot and later Carl A. Schenck were hired to manage the forests. Schenck even started the first forestry education program in the U.S. in 1898, called the Biltmore Forest School, right on the estate.
Another important part of the landscape was the four-mile (5 km) Approach track. This long, winding road started at the fancy brick gate at the edge of Biltmore Village. It ended at stone pillars topped with sphinx statues near the Esplanade (a large open area). Along the way, the road was lined with natural-looking plants and shrubs. This was meant to make the journey relaxing for guests. Olmsted also made sure to include 75 acres (30 ha) of formal gardens, which Vanderbilt had asked for around the house. He created a Roman formal garden, a formal garden, a bush and tulip garden, water fountains, and a conservatory with separate rooms for palms and roses. There was also a bowling green, an outdoor tea room, and a terrace for the European statues Vanderbilt brought back from his travels. At the other end of the Esplanade is the Rampe Douce, which means "gentle ramp." This is a winding stairway along a stone wall that leads to a grassy slope called the Vista. At the top of the Vista is a statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt.
Water was very important in Victorian landscaping. Olmsted added two water features to the estate: the Bass Pond, made from an old creek-fed millpond, and the Lagoon. Guests could use these for fishing and rowing. To supply water for the estate, Olmsted designed two reservoirs. One was a man-made lake on Busbee Mountain, fed by a spring. The other was a brick-lined reservoir behind the Diana statue, about 266 ft (81 m) above the Esplanade.
Biltmore Estate Today
Vanderbilt wanted his estate to be like the working estates in Europe. He asked Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted to design a village with matching buildings and pretty landscaping. He wanted it to earn money from rental cottages. It was also a place to help with charity programs and an easy way to get from the estate to the train station. This became Biltmore Village. The village was mostly designed by Richard Sharp Smith. It had rental cottages with plumbing and heating, a post office, shops, a doctor's office, a school, and a church. Today, the church is known as the Cathedral of All Souls.
Vanderbilt wanted the estate to support itself. So, he set up scientific forestry programs, poultry farms, cattle farms, hog farms, and a dairy. His wife, Edith, also strongly supported farming improvements. She helped create a state agricultural fair. In 1901, the Vanderbilts helped financially with Biltmore Industries. This was started by Eleanor Vance, a resident of Biltmore Village. It taught young people how to make hand-carved furniture, woven baskets, and wool fabric.
Today, the estate covers about 8,000 acres (13 sq mi; 32 km2) and is divided by the French Broad River. The estate is managed by The Biltmore Company, a family trust. This company is a large business and one of the biggest employers in the Asheville area. Restaurants were opened in 1979 and 1987, and gift shops in 1993. The old dairy barn was turned into the Biltmore Winery in 1985. A fancy 210-room hotel, The Inn on Biltmore Estate, opened in 2001. In 2010, the estate opened Antler Hill Village. This area has gift shops, restaurants, a remodeled winery, and a farmyard. In 2015, the Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate opened in Antler Hill Village. It is a more casual hotel with 209 rooms.
See also
In Spanish: Biltmore Estate para niños
- List of Gilded Age mansions
- Biltmore Mound
