North Carolina

Ashville

The Biltmore Estate

Cornelius Vanderbilt, enjoyed visiting western North Carolina for its mild climate and spectacular scenery. During a visit in the mid-1880s, Vanderbilt was inspired by a view from downtown Asheville so spectacular that he purchased 125,000 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains for his summer estate.

The centerpiece is the Biltmore House, a four-story French Renaissance manor designed by Hunt and completed in 1895. It was designed as a country retreat for Vanderbilt, his family and friends, and to showcase his vast collection of art and antiques gathered in world travels,a collection that remains intact today.

Exterior walls are Indiana limestone brought by rail to the site. Its steeply pitched roof has a copper roofline with Vanderbilt's initials repeatedly inscribed along the crest. Said to be the largest private house in the United States, the interior floor area of the 250-room house covers four acres.

At a time when bathrooms were virtually unheard of, Biltmore House had 43. There are 65 fireplaces and three kitchens, along with 34 bedrooms, a grand Banquet Hall and a Library containing 10,000 volumes.

Biltmore Estate is still privately owned and operated by George W. Vanderbilt's descendants. George W. Vanderbilt, youngest son of William H. Vanderbilt and grandson of "Commodore" His legacy is the Biltmore Estate, embodying his vision as well as that of architect Richard Morris Hunt, supervising architect Richard Sharp Smith, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Money can't buy everything for in 1914, George W. Vanderbilt had surgery for appendicitis and died from complications. His wife was in shock over his death and would sit nightly in front of the massive fireplace in the library of this mamouth estate talking to her husband. The servants could hear her conversation with him and gossip spread quickly through the staff for the poor old thing was loosing her mnd. Visitor and staff say they still hear her soft voice talking quietly with her beloved, George.

Vanderbilts most favorite room was the billiard room and his presence is felt strongly in there. Staff members and visitors speak of being watched, seeing apparitions hearing voices, laughter, singing and screams.

It seems a headless, orange cat roams the area between the gardens and the bass pond.Workers report feelings of being watched, apparitions, voices, laughing, & screams. The Pool Room is also a focal point of unexplainable events.

The sound of people swimming echoes throughout the entire lower floor in the dead of night. Insane laughter can be heard coming from the drain at the bottom of the pool. A woman dressed in black wanders the estate and the sound offootsteps down the hallway is common on the second floor.

A National Historic Landmark, the Biltmore Estate entrance is located on U.S. Hwy. 25, at exit 50 off I-40 or four miles north of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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