Asheville, North Carolina

After 982 miles and ten states, I arrived at my first destination: Asheville, North Carolina. I was welcomed to the South with beautiful 80 degree weather which was a wonderful treat after a cold, wet New England spring. It was awesome to find the trees getting their foliage, flowers blooming, and summer-like weather: goodbye New England! I decided to start off in Asheville for two reasons: close proximity to the Smoky Mountains and The Biltmore Estate.

The Biltmore Estate was originally a 125,000 acres property built by George Washington Vanderbilt who was the grandson of the railroad tycoon “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt. After visiting the region in 1888, he began purchasing land in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, NC with the vision of building a country estate to welcome family and friends that was also a working farm. When construction of the Biltmore House began in 1889, George Vanderbilt was one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. The cost to build the 175,000 square foot Gilded Age mansion was $5 million ($180 million today) and Vanderbilt opened his new home on Christmas Eve 1895. He married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898 and their only child, a daughter named Cornelia Vanderbilt, was born in the mansion in 1900.

Unfortunately, George Vanderbilt died in 1914 at the age of 51 due to complications from appendicitis. Management of the large estate fell upon Edith and their daughter Cornelia. The Biltmore House was first opened to the public in 1930 by Cornelia Vanderbilt to help support maintaining the house and to promote tourism in the Asheville area during the Great Depression. Today, the house known as “America’s Largest Home” is still owned and managed by descendants of George and Edith Vanderbilt. Over the decades, land was sold off, including some sold to the federal government for creation of the Pisgah National Forest, and today the Biltmore Estate encompasses about 8,000 acres. The estate welcomes over a million visitors a year and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.

Tours of the Biltmore House are self-guided audio tours which have 35 stations covering three floors of living space as well as the basement area. They recommend you book your entry time in advance and I had a tour that began at 11:45am. I found the audio tour to be very informative and really well done. One of the most interesting things I learned on the tour was that during World War II, the Biltmore House was used to store artwork from the National Gallery of Art. Officials chose the Biltmore House because of its remote location and advanced fire protection.

Vanderbilt was a gracious host and wanted to have plenty of activities for this family and guests. In 1900, not many homes in America had swimming pools let alone a 75,000 gallon heated pool in the basement! The interesting thing about the pool that I learned was that this was before the use of chemicals to keep pool water clean. Therefore, after ever use of the pool it was drained, cleaned, and refilled the next time it was used. There was also a two lane bowling alley in the basement. Again, this was before the age of automatic ball returns and pin resetting. So there is an alcove at the end of the lane for a servant to reset the pins and send the ball back to players. Food storage, female servant quarters, and kitchens were also in the basement area. There were several different kitchens each with a different function like pastries or roasting meat over a spit.

To the south of the Biltmore House are the Conservatory and formal gardens of the estate. The gardens are on terraces built on a hillside sloping away from the house. Before arriving at the steel and glass Conservatory, you stroll through several classical European gardens where several flowering plants were in full bloom including the tulips. Inside the Conservatory were several rooms lush with plant life including palms and orchids. Several trails lead down the hill through an azalea garden and trees from all over the world. At the bottom of the hill is a large bass pond complete with walking trails, boat house, bridges, and waterfall. The walk down was certainly easier than the climb back up!

During my three days in Asheville, I stayed at the Asheville West KOA Holiday campground in Candler, NC which was about 12 miles west of Biltmore Estate. It was a good base camp for visiting the estate and rejuvenating before heading to my next destination: Smoky Mountains National Park.