Today was the wonder of Biltmore, built by George Washington Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate, which was started in 1890 and had its grand opening on December 25, 1896. Much construction continued on the 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces for over 10 years after. The house was designed by Richard Morris Hunt with Richard Sharp Smith the supervising architect. The landscape architect was Frederick Law Ohmsted.
No photography is permitted inside the "house", so I don't have any photos of our own to add. Needless to say with the 41 separate rooms described on the audio device we each carried, it would be hard to choose what to describe. The Biltmore has 29 feet deep footings which are 14 feet wide to support the huge home. Vanderbilt traveled all over the world collecting art, furniture and plants. One of the most striking art was a tapestry dating to the 1500's, the only of its kind in the world. I asked a docent how they preserve something so priceless because it was in a huge room with open windows. She commented that once in a while an artisan has to do a bit of repair, but that the low humidity common to this mountainous region helped to naturally preserve it.
George Vanderbilt was unmarried when he built the Biltmore, but married a New York aristocrat named Edith Stuyvesant. Dresser They had one daughter, Cornelia, who married a British aristocrat named John F. A. Cecil. George Vanderbilt died in 1914 from an appendicitis attack. (Had antibiotics been available then, he would likely have survived). His widow was a real dynamo and finished much of the construction which George had grown tired of. Edith Vanderbilt was very involved in the day-to-day operation of the Estate including its vast farming interests. She started the first 4-H club in western North Carolina!
Yesterday I talked about the Gustavino arches and today we learned that the ceiling for the swimming pool at Biltmore was designed by Gustavino. Yesterday I said he was from Italy, but he was actually a Spaniard. The swimming pool was quite an innovation for the time. It was filled directly from cold mountain streams and heated by steam from boilers being pumped into the pool. It has a sloping side with ropes suspended above to permit people to wade as deeply as they wanted as being adept at swimming was not common in that time.
The Biltmore Estate remains family-owned by the great-grandchildren of George. It produces 250 tons of grapes per year and we can attest to the delight of the wide variety of wines produced there. We each tasted at least six of them today!!
The gardens are also a spectacle especially with the tulips, azaleas and other Spring flowers in full bloom. There are hundreds of orchids in the Conservatory hot houses and wonderful walking trails through the gardens.
Following the wine tasting we wandered through the farm building which displayed many of the implements used in the early 20th century. It brought back memories of some the equipment my Dad used on our farm in Wisconsin .
We topped off the day with dinner at Cedric's named after the St Bernard dog which was much beloved by the Vanderbilt family and is in many photos displayed throughout the estate and immortalized in a life-sized bronze statute outside the restaurant. We learned that the four restaurants on the grounds of Biltmore Estate are totally dependent on tourist patrons as you cannot access them without an admission ticket or a $15 entrance fee after 5 PM!! The food was great, too.
Tomorrow it's on to Charleston, South Carolina. Good night!
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