Biltmore House. America’s largest home, and one of my favorite places on earth.
My wife and I, along with our 13 year old son, just returned from a trip to Asheville, NC.
Eleven inches of snow on the ground added to the beauty of the Estate.
Construction on Biltmore House began in 1891 and George Washington Vanderbilt opened the home to his family and guests on Christmas Eve 1895.
The Estate, which originally comprised 125,000 acres, is still owned by Vanderbilts’ great-grandchildren.
Designed and constructed by famed architect Fredrick Law Olmstead, Biltmore has 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. There are four acres of floor space in the house. It is the largest home in America.
The Biltmore House and Gardens attract over one million visitors per year.
(Biltmore House – Eastern facade)
(The Esplanade, looking toward Ramps Deuce and the Statue of Diana)
(The Italian Garden with frozen over Koi ponds)
(Italian Garden statue)
(Statue on South Terrace with Blue Ridge Mountains in background)
(The Bass Pond)
(The west facade of Biltmore House from behind the lagoon)
Beautiful place to visit, very will maintained. Holiday decorations are fantastic. And even more amazing, the family still uses the home and facilities.
Wife and I visited several years ago, in the winter. Wife was having problems walking up and down stairs. We made it to the second floor before she called it quits. So, the docents took us to the ground floor on the elevator in the entrance! Very helpful and understanding.
We have a bass pond, instead of statues we have rocks with our dogs names engraved in them, kind of a meaningful work of art for us. 😉
We would be absolutely thriiled to have you and you family come visit. Of couse we don’t have an estate as awesome as the Billtmore, glad you and your family were able to spend time there and thank you for sharing your experience.
I love visiting historical sites like that, even old abandoned houses, there’s nothing like walking through them, wondering about the generations of families that spent their lives in the homes. There’s quite a few of them in our Missouri area, one abandoned home behind our property had correspondence from 1921, don’t know what happened to the family, but we appreciated looking at what was left behind.
I worked at Burpee Art Museum when young, it was once the home of the Burpee Seed family. It had two basements and it was stuffed with artwork they had collected. Our job(another guy and I) was to catalog whatever we found, every day was an adventure, so many crooks and crannies in that place. Best job I ever had.
I went there six years ago. It was quite an experience. A beautiful estate if you like that sort of thing. I was amazed at the amount of work that went into building and furnishing it.
But being a hunter at heart and a country boy, I kept thinking, “I’ll bet there are deer everywhere!”
you need to visit NC other great mansion
Kerner’s Folly in Kernersville NC – most of the same facilities in a more normal sized house
I dont care how pretty the house is, I am not paying $50 to $75 to walk through it.
AYE CHIHUAHUA, wow, a real castle in AMERICA REPRESENTING how the impossible can become possible on a ERA that it was okay to built a dream house,
how sad, to see what is built today, so many eye sores, no soul in it:
today they are building MOSQUE to advance their agenda, and no matters what they put in it AND HOW MANY THEY BUILT, THEY DONT REFLECT AMERICA AND WILL NEVER DO EXCEPT REFLECT THE MUSLIMS HISTORY
they don’t fit in the USA, AND WHAT THE AMERICANS LOVE TO SEE IS THOSE OLD WELL
BUILT CASTLES FROM THE OLD GENERATIONS OF AMERICANS, setteling their young
OFFSPRINGS IN THIS COUNTRY TO BRING THEIR BUSYNESS IN THIS AMERICA
WITH ALL THE JOBS THEY GAVE TO AMERICANS, FOR COUNTLESS TIMES,
THANK’S FOR SHOWING IT
Would really like to see the mansion. Should throw some golf in there to make the trip more appealing. There’s a lot of global worming on the ground, though.
Toured the Hearst Castle of megalomaniac William Randolph Hearst. 4 tours of 25$ apiece. I spent 2 days there. I still remember Edward the Confessor’s confessional and the Roman Pool that was featured in the movie Spartacus. Hearst was also a grave robber of the first order.
Google the Hearst Castle for more fascinating info. A trip to San Simeon, California would be fun once again. Again there’s Pebble Beach and Spyglass, where one has to practically bribe a big shot in order to play some awesome golf.
Love the post.
Aye–
I live about 30 miles from the Biltmore, and we’ve been having winter fun as well. Went sledding, built a snowman, had a snowball fight, hit an icy patch and drove the car into a ditch…the usual stuff.
John Cooper: hi, now why would you drive the car in the ditch just for fun,
bye and best to you for the NEW YEAR COMING,
Weren’t scenes in “Being there” filmed at this house?
Ms. Bees asks “now why would you drive the car in the ditch just for fun”.
It’s a redneck thing. This time I did it while careening down an icy road backwards with no brakes, too! After I walked back home, my wife towed me out of the ditch with her 4WD Durango. I changed the burst brake hose the next day. I can’t figure out why it burst. The damn thing was only 18 years old.
Happy New Year to you and yours, Ms. Bees.
@firefirefire:
Yes, portions of “Being There” were filmed at Biltmore House.
The house and portions of the estate have been featured in multiple other films as well.
John Cooper , thank you and same to you. bye
Happy New Year, everybody! I’m staying home with a bottle of Pino Noir, watching Casablanca! Wishing everyone a great 2011.
CARY, PINOT NOIR WOW FANCY IT IS,
and the best to you, hope you finish your book this year
@ilovebeeswarzone:
Thanks, same to you! Pinot Noir isn’t really so fancy, it’s just a lighter red wine that’s good without so much food! I intend to write a lot this year!
@John Cooper:
When we first got our property in Missouri we were not familiar with the ice storms. Hubby parked the Blazer along the roadside, we got out, turned around and watched it slide into the ditch, did appreciate it waiting for me to get out of the passenger side. 🙄
Fortunately he was able to back it up a bit and work his way out of it. In Illinois where we live we get lots of snow, no problem, in Missouri it’s ice storms and very little snow, winter fun, lots of learning experiences.
Happy New Year!
Just got back from a wonderful week at the Inn on Biltmore (wife’s Christmas Gift)! We toured for the candlelight at the house.
It was as usual great!
home staging project photos, hi, please join in, you might be surprise nicely on other post also,
welcome