BILTMORE ESTATE

Asheville, NC

In the 1880s, George Washington Vanderbilt, heir to vast railroad and shipping fortunes, began to make regular trips to the Asheville, North Carolina area to visit his mother. He decided to create his own summer estate in the area, which he called his "little mountain escape.” His older brothers and sisters had built opulent summer homes in Rhode Island and New York. His vision was to replicate the working estates of Europe. He commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the house in the style of Loire Valley chateaux, especially the Chateau de Blois. He also engaged Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of Central Park in New York City) to design the grounds, including the rustic three-mile approach road. Famous guests to the estate have included author Edith Wharton, novelist Henry James, presidents McKinley, Wilson and Nixon, and Charles, Prince of Wales. The construction and upkeep of Biltmore depleted much of Vanderbilt’s inheritance. After he died of complications from an emergency appendectomy in 1914, his widow sold 85,000 of the original 125,000 acre estate to the federal government, which is now the core of Pisgah National Forest. Today, the estate covers about 8,000 acres and is split in half by the French Broad River. It is owned by The Biltmore Company, which is controlled by Vanderbilt's grandson, William A.V. Cecil, II.

My wife and I visited Asheville for a ballroom dance competition at The Grove Park Inn. Late Saturday, as the waltzes and foxtrots began to blur together, I snuck away for a quick sketch. The winter weather turned warm and sunny while I was working, so I took off my shirt, and managed to get sunburned. There is a raised terrace beyond the front yard of the Biltmore, which made a perfect place from which to sketch.