Vanderbilt Mansion at Asheville North Carolina

Biltmore Mansion at Asheville North Carolina

History

Biltmore Mansion and winery is built by George Vanderbilt in the Gilded Age of America. George Vanderbilt's father was William Henry Vanderbilt. George's grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt made the Vanderbilt's fortune in the Railroad. Cornelius Vanderbilt, known as the Commodore, developed the New York Central Railroad.

Biltmore House was modeled after a 16th century French Chateau. At one time, the Biltmore Estates was about 125,000 acres and included Mt. Pisgah. Much of this land is now part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Richard Morris Hunt was the architect designing the house while Frederick Olmsted laid out the gardens and parks surrounding the Mansion. From the gate, there is a 3 mile approach leading to the Vanderbilt mansion.

Tour Biltmore Estates

There are 250 rooms in the mansion, each unique and beautiful. The Banquet hall is the most impressive room with its 5 Flemish tapestries. The acoustics of the room are perfect in that one can sit on one end of the long banquet table and speak to another at the other end of the table and still be heard without raising one's voice.

The library is worth noting. There are 20,000 books shelved here. The Portraits of George Vanderbilt by artist Sargent can be seen here together with a portrait of his mother. Other family member portraits are, also, in the library and the breakfast room.

The mansion is furnished with period furniture and antiques some dating as far back as the 16th century. There are Renaissance paintings, Renaissance and Gothic styles, 17th century Jacobean style furniture, Louis XV style rooms, armor and more. In the morning salon, there is a table where it is said the heart of Napoleon (inside an urn) rested upon said table before being placed in a coffin.

Downstairs is a Halloween room which was decorated in 1926 for a dance. Also, downstairs you will find the Bowling alley, the swimming pool, the main kitchen, the pastry kitchen, the Rotisserie kitchen, 17 dressing rooms, a gymnasium, servants bedrooms and the laundry.

The gardens are made up of roses, tulips (imported from Holland) azalea, marigolds, dahlias, cannas, zinnia, dogwoods, chrysanthemums, magnolias, crab apples, and many more flowers, shrubs, trees and plants. There are terrace gardens, an Italian garden, an 4 acre English walled garden, a shrub garden and others. There is a conservatory that contains palm trees, banana trees, ferns, cacti orchids and other tropical plants.

Spring is a good time to visit when the gardens are blooming. At Christmas, there are candlelit tours and the decorations are worth seeing. Usually every year around October they host a Renaissance celebration where everyone dresses up from the 1500's.

The current owners of the Biltmore House are ancestors to William Cecil, who was the Chief Minister of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England.

Biltmore is often misspelled: Builtmore, Beltmore, buildmore, biltmoer bilmore, built more, biltmor and biltmoor.

Tickets

A Biltmore package is offered at Howard Johnson Biltmore Inn Hotel

Biltmore Village was built in the late 1890's as a classic planned community at the entrance to George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate. It was built to house the workers who labored at Biltmore House. In addition to the workers homes, the community originally included a hospital, a school, a post office and shops. Today the village is a community of unique shops, dress shops, antique shops, art galleries and more. horse and buggy rides available

Movies filmed at the Biltmore Estate

Documentary films

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Biltmore House Specialties of the House

Mrs. George Washington Vanderbilt private collection of Recipes

Suggested Reading :

For Events, tickets, pictures and more information Visit the Biltmore Estate Website

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