We went back to the estate at 10:00 a.m. George W. Vanderbilt was the grandson of “The Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the youngest of 8 children of a family with a vast fortune in shipping and railroads. George, 27 years old, inherited a considerable sum and wanted to do something noteworthy. He hired Richard Morris Hunt to design the mansion and Frederick Law Olmsted to do the landscaping. The house is the equivalent of approximately 400 acres. It has 250 rooms and remains the largest home in the United States. George officially opened the house on Christmas Eve of 1895. Three years later he brought his bride to live at the Biltmore. Their only child, Cornelia, was born in Biltmore House. George died in 1914 and his wife continued to manage the estate. Cornelia was married in the home and her two sons were born in the home. When they moved out, the house was opened to the public in 1930, responding to the request of the Asheville leaders hoping to increase area tourism during the depression.
We signed up for a Behind the Scenes tour and we ended up being the only two on the tour. Normally they have at least 16 people for each tour so we felt really lucky to have a personal tour. The guide took us into areas that the normal tour doesn’t cover such as the bachelor quarters, a view from above of the grand banquet hall and the pipe organ, Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bathroom (only bathroom in the home that had a tub and shower) and personal maid’s quarters, kitchen and the basement where the three big coal burners provided the steam for heat and hot water. We saw many of the big trunks that were used for their travel and one of them was a Louis Vitton trunk with the same design as today. Couldn’t imagine what that trunk must be worth now. The Biltmore was very advanced. When a guest pushed an ivory button on the wall of their room located on the fourth floor, it rang a buzzer in the kitchen and on a board an arrow would point to the room number. The kitchen staff would then ring the staff member for that floor and request that they go to that room to see what the guest was requesting. The staff member would then call the kitchen back and tell them a cup of coffee. The cup of coffee was put into a dumbwaiter and sent to the third floor. That is as high as the dumbwaiter went. Then a young staff member would get the cup of coffee and run it upstairs quickly. This young staff member was called a “Tweener” because they ran between the floors. There is a master clock and when that clock moved one minute it moved every clock in the home one minute so everyone was always working on the same time.
George and Edith were very good to their approximately 40 staff members. He refused to call them servants and instead called them his staff. He provided each member with a their own spacious and comfortable room. They worked from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and were paid based on New York wages. The house had a call box and telephone used to summon staff members to different areas of the vast house.
All guests had hot and cold running water and flushing toilets. When the Biltmore opened in 1895, the entire house had DC electricity and then when the city converted to AC, the hotel changed over to AC too. The house was originally built with both DC and AC electricity. There were two elevators, one for the staff and one for the guests. The guest elevator cost $250 to install and both elevators were put in by the Otis company. The original motor to run the guest elevator is still being used today.
We had lunch at the stable café. Our table was in what used to be one of the horse stalls. We had a nice lunch and had a glass of their wine. We next took an audio tour
through the main part of the home. We were able to tour on our own and at our own pace. When people were dining in the Banquet Hall, George wanted them to feel like they were in a castle. The banquet table had two leaves and extended to 42 feet and could accommodate 64 guests. There were three fireplaces on one end and up above on the other end was the pipe organ. Original tapestries still hang on the walls. It was a shame that pictures were not allowed because it was just incredible to see.
On the fourth floor is the Architectural Model Room. The centerpiece of this room is architect Richard Morris Hunt’s 1889 model of the Biltmore House. Hunt had the model built to show George Vanderbilt what he proposed for Vanderbilt’s estate.
Completing the tour led us back to our wonderful 400 square foot RV.
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