Biltmore Estate
George Vanderbilt's 250-room chateau in the Blue Ridge, with gardens laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted.
George Washington Vanderbilt II commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to build a country house in the mountains of western North Carolina, and the two travelled in France to study the chateaux of the Loire. Work ran from 1889 to 1895 and produced a limestone house of about 250 rooms and 16,000 square metres, with a spiral stair, a barrel-vaulted banquet hall seven storeys high, an indoor pool and a bowling alley. It remains the largest privately owned house in the United States.
Frederick Law Olmsted planned the approach road, the formal gardens, the walled garden and its conservatory, and the surrounding woodland, which became an early demonstration of managed forestry in America; much of it later formed the Pisgah National Forest. The house still holds Vanderbilt's collection, including works by Renoir, Sargent and Whistler, and sixteenth-century tapestries. The estate remains in family ownership and also takes in a winery, farm and gardens open to visitors.
Highlights
- Banquet Hall with its 70-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling
- Library of around 10,000 volumes beneath a Pellegrini ceiling
- Walled garden and glass conservatory by Olmsted and Hunt
- Indoor swimming pool, bowling alley and basement service rooms
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