The Vanderbilt's Country House

We had originally planned to skirt round the Great Smoky Mountains on the I40 and then drive the Blue Ridge Parkway near its southern extremity at Cherokee NC, but we were stunned to hear that the Parkway is closed throughout North Carolina due to snow and ice! We have just driven over the Smokies on the day after the last storm, and there is barely a flake of snow to be seen. We cannot fathom how the Parkway can be closed, but we do understand that the road is not snow-plowed, but has to clear itself naturally. This is a stark contrast to the approach we saw two years ago in the Rocky Mountains, where mountain passes twice as high as anything on the Parkway seem to be cleared within hours of a snowstorm. These are isolated roads of course, and therefore very important, while the Blue Ridge Parkway is a tourist road with lots of alternatives available.

Anyway, we had been advised by both Jack's friend, Mike, who lives in Washington, and our friend Judy from Greenville that when near Asheville NC, we should not miss the Biltmore Estate. We were not sure we wanted to take up these recommendations, having previously visited Versailles out of Paris, and Schoenbrunn in Vienna. But in the end, while waiting for the snow on the Parkway to melt, we made the pilgramage to Biltmore, and the investment of our time and the entry fee was amply rewarded.

At 8000 acres, the Estate is huge. The drive around it is about 11 miles long. The gardens are large and immaculate, and were designed by the same fellow who did Central Park in New York. There was once a working dairy, which provided the town with milk, but it has now been replaced by a huge vineyard and winery, which now markets Biltmore wines. We sampled some of the wines, which were very good! There are other tourist attractions now, a farm and horse stables, not to mention walking trails, jogging, bicycling, carraige rides [photo] and even Land Rover off road driving experiences. There is a large inn, for people to stay on the estate.

The highlight of the visit to the Estate is Biltmore House, the largest house in the USA. The house's exterior is very ornate, bringing to mind Windsor Castle and Notre Dame. The house was built by George Vanderbilt in the 1890's as a "country home". It is interesting to see this house and the furnishings, as there is so much of Europe incorporated there. Many tapestries, on the walls, all the furniture in the rooms, and the art works. For example, all the bedrooms are themed in such a way that you can almost guess the name of the room from the art on the walls, all European. The European palace approach of having narrow passageways between the rooms for servants to scurry has been adopted at Biltmore. Of course there are very practical American touches, specifically that all the bedrooms have ensuites. This would be an innovative idea in Europe, even today.

Sadly, photography is not allowed inside the house. There is a winter garden just inside the front door which is stunning. The main dining room is beyond description, it even features a huge pipe organ! The circular grand staircase goes from bottom to top and wraps around a gigantic multileveled chandelier. While the tour of the majestic rooms of Biltmore was as impressive as you would expect, possibly the feature of this tour which made it partly unique and certainly fascinating was the visit to the servants quarters, the kitchens, the pantries, the laundries etc, all in restored condition. We even saw a blower room which powers the organ upstairs, and a "mechanical" walk-in refrigerator. The washing machine was a sight to see!

Biltmore seems way ahead of its time: it has a bowling alley, an indoor pool and a gymnasium. We are guessing the house was used in the winter, there is no outdoor pool, no tennis courts etc, so maybe the Vanderbilts had a beach house as well, for summer use. Obviously the grounds would have been used for hunting, and shooting, geese, deer, etc., and there were large lakes for fishing.

Biltmore House did have an outdoor bowls area, and extensive vegetable gardens. Still functioning is a beautiful conservatory [photo], with many plants we recognised, all of which would grow in a Sydney garden all year round, and were flourishing in the hot house conditions, even pineapples!

The Estate is still in the Vanderbilt family, but it was opened to the public in the 1930's as a means of helping Asheville with tourism during the depression. Despite the entry fees, and the wine and merchandise sales, one would not assume that the "business" makes too much money. Maintenance of the grounds and the buildings would cost a fortune, and there are great numbers of staff employed.