Biltmore Estate

For Christmas, Matt and Vanessa got us tickets to visit Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina. It is advertised as the largest privately owned home in America. Do I believe it? Yes, I do. We actually went to Biltmore 20 years ago with my dad and mom.

Fall
1996

Jessi and Matt in 1996

Gary, Matt, Kira, Mom and Jessi

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Lola with Matt, Kira and Jessi

For those who may not be familiar, Biltmore was built between 1889 and 1895 by the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt II. He pretty much blew his inheritance building the estate, which was modeled on the French chateaus and English manor homes.

Biltmore has four acres of floor space and a total of 250 rooms in the house including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms, and an intercom system (not to mention the bowling alley and indoor pool.) It is decorated with tapestries, paintings, and other art works from America and Europe. The house was designed by Richard Morris Hunt who also designed the façade for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The grounds were done by Frederick Law Olmstead (designer of Central Park in New York). The original grounds covered 195 square miles most of which Olmstead converted to forest which is now the basis of Pisgah National Forest.  

30 Jan 2016

We left Rock Hill about 8am, since we had a time for the tour of 10:30a. After stopping for gas in Gaffney we got there around 10:20am. There was still some snow on the ground in Asheville, especially under the trees.

It took about an hour to tour the house. We had the audio tour where you are given a device with a number pad on it. As you came the various rooms, there would be a sign with the name of the room and a number on it. You would punch in the number and it would play back a recording describing the room, how it was used, and anything of interest in it. (There was always something of interest.)  The tour covered the main rooms, many of the private and guest rooms, and also the kitchen, laundry and some of the servant’s quarters.

After the tour, we visited the gift shops in the converted stable/carriage house. We also had lunch there at the Stable Café. We had the Stable Café Sampler for two (smoked ribs, pulled pork barbecue, rotisserie chicken, white bean ragout, coleslaw, sweet pickles and potatoes.) I came to about $40 with the tip so not real bad. The food was pretty good (except the chicken was kind of bland.)

After eating we stopped off at Antler Hill Village and did a little window shopping and got some ice cream.

Then it was back to Rock Hill. We got home a little after 4:40 pm.

We really enjoyed the trip and we would like to go back and take the behind the scenes tour of the servants area.