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The escape
George Vanderbilt wanted a summer house and bought 125,000 acres
George Washington Vanderbilt II began visiting the Asheville area with his mother in the 1880s. He decided to build a summer house, his “little mountain escape”. He named it Biltmore, combining De Bilt, his ancestors' place of origin in the Netherlands, with more, an open, rolling land. He bought 125,000 acres in nearly 700 parcels, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries.
“...in very poor condition, and many of the farmers and other landowners were glad to sell.”
A spokesman for the estate, on the land Vanderbilt bought
The house
A railroad spur, a brick kiln and 1,000 workers built the house
Richard Morris Hunt designed the house, and construction began in 1889. A woodworking factory and brick kiln were built on site, with a 3-mile railroad spur to bring materials. The main house needed the labor of about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons. Vanderbilt opened it on Christmas Eve of 1895 to family and friends.
250rooms in the house, with 65 fireplaces
The forest
Olmsted advised a park around the house and a timber forest beyond
The landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was not impressed with the condition of the 125,000 acres. He advised a park around the house, farms along the river and the rest replanted as a commercial timber forest. Carl A. Schenck, hired to manage the forests, founded the Biltmore Forest School in 1898, the first forestry education program in the U.S.
The sale
Vanderbilt died in 1914 and 87,000 acres went to the federal government
Vanderbilt began the sale of 87,000 acres to the federal government. He died unexpectedly in 1914 after an emergency appendectomy, and his widow completed the sale. She carried out his wish that the land remain pristine. It became the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest.
The paintings
In 1942 paintings from Washington were stored in the unfinished Music Room
Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930, at the request of the City of Asheville, to bolster the estate's finances in the Great Depression. In 1942, 62 paintings and 17 sculptures came by train from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Among them was Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington.
Day 2, morning
Next is Biltmore Village.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Biltmore Estate, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.