Welcome to the North Carolina Vanderbilt Extravaganza - AKA "The Biltmore Estate"

Vanderbilt Estate - "The Biltmore" in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville, North Carolina is best known for the Biltmore Estate.  This is one of the Vanderbilt houses.  The setting is 8,000 acres upon which is the mansion, the formal and informal gardens, a conservatory, complete with as many orchids as I've seen since Hawaii, a farmyard, a deer estate, [this must be a holdover from when Vanderbilt thought he was the King of Asheville], and a winery.  There are also several restaurants and shops.  The whole shebang is still privately held by the Vanderbilts and several family members live on the property in cottages/houses, rather than the mansion, and run it all.  For the privilege of seeing all of this, they charge the lordly fee of $85 per person.  To be fair, it is a two day ticket for everything EXCEPT the mansion.  I had it in my mind this place was on top of a mountain out of town.  Instead, it's right inside the Asheville city limits.

Today, the building of this monstrosity would be filmed as a documentary.  They started the building in 1889 and finished in time for the house to open for Christmas, 1895.  Landscaping was still being completed.  The mansion cost $5 million in Gilded Age dollars.  That's approximately $168 million in Electroic Age dollars.  Since still photography was available, Vanderbilt's architect documented the construction process. The photos and explanations are part of the house tour.  If you are interested, you can read about the construction and see the 19th century photos.  The Vanderbilt historical staff has tried to find the names with photos of the people of color who helped built the mansion and landscape the grounds.  In keeping with 19th century thinking, the 'colored' were not paid equally, nor offered the same benefits as the white workers.  At least there are some pictures, and jobs were offered.

Honestly, the most interesting aspect of this house was the art.  There are Singer Sargent paintings, Renoirs, Manets, and other locally/internationally famous artists.  There is Serves' porcelain, but the jewel of the art collection is a 17th century tapestry.  There are three tapestry panels -  one extremely rare, and the other two are just 'rare'.  The tapestries at the Biltmore are three of the seven virtues.  They are 'Faith' (only one in existence); 'Prudence', and 'Charity'.  Thanks to the centuries and the French Revolution, fine wall sized tapestries tend to be priceless.  

Most of the rest of the mansion is pretty much the norm for Gilded Age houses with the exception that there's hardly any 'gilt' - actual gold used as paint or decoration.  The Vanderbilt house, "The Breakers" (Newport, Rhode Island), the 'summer cottage' of 30 plus rooms is covered in gilt.  This house actually feels like it was lived in.  Most of the furniture looks comfortable, and there are places to eat that don't include a table for 20.  The mansion is very large, and I've deleted from my photos the 'extra guest bedrooms' which all looked about the same as a really nice hotel room of the era.  There were just lots of them.  

There is an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley.  The house was (and is) an ongoing project of renovation and redecoration.  One large room was being redecorated when WWII broke out, so the Mrs. Vanderbilt of the era stored all the National Galley of Art pieces in this room for the duration of the war.  She considered this her war duty, and never even suggested charging the museum for the storage. 

I thought $85 per ticket was pretty steep, but I have to say it was an entire day's worth of entertainment.  The gardens were really exquisite.  The conservatory rivaled many city botanical garden offerings.  There were orchids I'd never seen.  Of course, it helps that western North Carolina is very temperate and everything seems to grow here.

One of the reasons the garden areas are so spectacular is the landscape was the last 'park' designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.  He died shortly after the mansion opened.  His mature grounds of the 21st century are still a triumph.  

I think Asheville would be better served by the Biltmore Estate if the grounds were open to Asheville residents for a nominal fee.  The brochure talks about 'hiking trails', but I didn't see any.  There is a pond; a lake; and a portion of the French Broad river.  It certainly wouldn't detract from the 'tourist attraction' to let the local population use some of the acreage carved out of the center of their city. 

If interested, there are two sets of photos - one of the mansion and grounds, and the other of the building process.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1QaL6obEJBuMAkR7 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8b3TXzaMe147BR2h8