Today we went to the Biltmore Estate. This is the biggest privately owned home in the country. It's still owned by descendants of George Vanderbilt, the youngest son who built the biggest house. The house has 4 acres of floor space, (135,000 SF), 250 rooms, 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. It reminded me of Downton Abbey.
But come on, who needs a "house" this big? It was built in 1889-1895 with 1000 workers. The late 1800s-early 1900s was called the "Gilded Age". Mark Twain coined the phrase and he wasn't being kind when he called it that. This was the age of the big industrialists that built the country, true, but by using child labor, exploiting workers, amassing and squandering vast fortunes, and each had to have a bigger house, more servants, more land, more art, to show off to their friends that they were bigger and better than the others. A bunch of narcisists.
The rooms where guests stayed were nice and not overdone. But the rooms on the first floor, and Mr. & Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedrooms are so over the top. Walking down the hallways where the guest bedrooms were I couldn't help think of Downton Abbey, and guests sneaking into each other's rooms after lights out.
He had a huge library and it was said he was well read. But most of the books looked like sets of books that people buy to fill their shelves because they look good but don't actually read them.
The house was ahead of it's time with electricity and indoor plumbing (although the bathrooms didn't make it to the servants' quarters - they still had chamber pots). There's a 2 lane bowling alley and a 75,000 gallon swimming pool with underwater lighting - pretty impressive for 1895 that they figured out how not to electrocute their guests in the pool. It also had electric elevators, forced air heat, synchronized clocks and a call bell system.
The kitchens and female servants quarters were in the basement. The male servants stayed in rooms above the stables.
Walking in the house from the dining and living areas, you come to the smoking room and the gun room where male guests would gather. Past those rooms were the bachelors' quarters, rooms set aside for single men where no women guests or servants were allowed.
When the house was built George owned a bazillion acres but couldn't afford them all so sold most to the Federal Government for the Pizgah National Forest. He kept "only" 8000 acres.
The gardens were designed and laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted who was also the designer of Central Park in NYC. The gardens were a little in between right now - the azaleas are past their prime and the rose bushes are covered with fat buds but mostly haven't opened yet. The green houses contain the most amazing orchids and other blooming things.
After the house and gardens we drove to the winery. They have a working farm and winery here. Some of George's great- and great-great-grandchildren run the operation and some of them still live on the estate, though not in the house. No one has lived there since the 50s. The house was open to the public in 1930 to increase tourism to Asheville during the depression.
At the winery we walked through a tunnel that was a self-guided tour of the winery, ending up in the tasting room of course.
They had two special exhibits - "Designed for Drama" and "The Biltmore Legacy". The first is a collection of costumes from movies, the second is about weddings of the Vanderbilts. In this post you see some of the costumes, but I'm going to do a second post just of the costumes. So if you aren't into period costumes you can skip that post.
Showing off
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Asheville, North Carolina, United States
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