The Biltmore Estate

George Vanderbilt II commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the Biltmore home, using a French Renaissance chateaus that Vanderbilt and Hunt had visited earlier as inspiration. The Biltmore Home, sometimes referred to as America's Castle, was built starting in late 1889 and it was completed in 1895. It is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 sq ft and 135,280 sq ft of living area. Still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age.

We arrived at the estate early and parked the jeep. We took a bus to the main residence, you can walk up from the parking lot if you prefer. We had plenty of time to explore the front lawn area before our scheduled tour time.

Biltmore has a total of 250 rooms in the house including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and three kitchens. It also has electric elevators, forced-air heating and centrally controlled clocks (all the wall clocks always show the exact same time), fire alarms, and a call-bell system.  Sorry, no inside photos of this marvelous home - the Estate prohibits guests from sharing photos of the inside of the home. You enter the marbled Entrance Hall and are handed a head-set to wear. No one rushes you through the rooms, you can go at your own pace. If one room is too crowded, don't move on - just relax and stay back to walk around the room and take it all in.

Moving though the Entrance Hall, to the right you will find the amazing sunken (step-down), octagon Winter Garden which is surrounded by stone archways with a ceiling of sculptured wood and multifaceted windows. In the center of this glass enclosed garden is a marble and bronze fountain sculpture titled Boy Stealing Geese created by Karl Bitter. The next room is the Banquet Hall, the largest room in the house, measuring 42 ft wide and 72 ft long, with a 70-ft-high barrel-vaulted ceiling. The massive dinner table can seat 64 guests. A huge triple fireplace fills one wall of the room, while a gorgeous 1916 Skinner pipe organ fills the opposite wall. I could go on and on, but instead I will just tell you that the tour is well worth it. 

We took our time touring the home and especially enjoyed sitting back and relaxing on the terrace-balcony looking over the backyard. After spending a few hours on the tour of the home, we walked through the beautiful gardens and greenhouse. Then we wandered around the estate down to the Bass Lake. We decided to eat dinner at the Biltmore Inn. The view was amazing, we watched the sunset before saying good-bye to the Biltmore Estate.