During the height of the Gilded Age, George
Washington Vanderbilt set out to build the largest house to ever be constructed in the United States.
Hi everyone, Ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse" !! George had been born into one of, if not the
greatest of fortunes the New World had ever seen. He purchased 195 square miles of land near
Ashville, North Carolina and hired prominent landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead to
not only plan the view shed and formal gardens, but to make the estate self-sustaining by
including dozens of farms. While Olmstead was hard at work creating the perfect landscape,
George hired famed Gilded Age architect, Richard Morris Hunt to design a mansion, the
likes of which the country had never seen before. When it was all said and done, the
mansion, which would be named The Biltmore, would boast over 178,000 square feet with
250 rooms, 35 bedrooms, and 43 bathrooms. Just to give you an idea of the shear size-
if you were to layout the rooms on one level, they would cover more than 4 acres of floor space. The 4 story mega mansion was planned to be nestled
in the hills, becoming part of the ridgeline. Construction started in 1889 and stretched on for
6 years with over 1,000 workers laboring every day on site. The brick walls were reinforced
with a steel frame and the façade was clad in Indiana Limestone which was brought to
the property by way of a private railroad. Entering the home through the
vestibule, we arrive in the Main Hall, clad in limestone and set at
larger than life proportions. To the side, natural light penetrates the deep interiors through the Winter
Garden’s glass paned ceiling. And just beyond this space, we will find the
largest room in the house, The Banquet Hall. From end to end it measures 72 feet long with
barrel vaulted ceilings soaring 70 feet over head. When the table is assembled with its many leaves,
it can comfortably accommodate 64 dinner guests in front of the triple fireplace finished
out with intricate, figurative relief work. On the opposite wall, a built in
pipe organ was meant to bellow, echoing live music through
the mansion’s cavernous halls. Though this is not where the Vanderbilts would
have dined when they were not entertaining, instead, they would have sat in the
breakfast room towards the rear of the house, a more intimate space
when compared to the Banquet Hall. While we are here, we can take a peek behind
the scenes to find the kitchen and the Pantry. Of course, a family living a life of unfathomable
luxury would not have prepared their own meals. Their live-in staff would have
catered to their every need. Cutting across the rear of the house, we will
pass from the breakfast room into the salon, decorated with antique European furnishings which George had collected while the
Biltmore was being constructed. This will lead us into the music room, clad in half height oak paneling below hand
stenciled beams running along the ceiling. From here we will dodge the Main hall
and explore the other wing of the house, making our way into the gallery, which
stretches 90 feet from end to end with a collection of centuries old Flemish tapestries. The gallery terminates on the Library housing over 10,000 volumes on its shelves. It is clad in
walnut panels and designed in the baroque style, even featuring a ceiling mural which had
been stripped from a building in Italy and reinstalled intact, a true marvel of not only
art, but logistics for accomplishing such a feat. Though we have already covered
a space larger than the White House, we still have not
seen the entire first floor. The billiards room, clad in Oak
paneling below a dazzling array of artisan plaster work on the
ceiling, offered a retreat for George Vanderbilt’s male friends through
the hidden passage on the back wall. This leads to the smoking room and eventually
to the bachelor wing where single gentlemen guests would have been sequestered
away from the ladies of the house. Now we can begin making our way up the grand,
cantilevered staircase, rotating around a double hung chandelier which has been suspended from
an ornate, rib vaulted medallion on the ceiling. The iron balustrade seamlessly curves with the
steps and is capped off by a wood hand rail, adding just the right amount
of warmth to the stone atrium. Up here we will find the bedrooms
of both George and his wife, Edith. First we will explore George’s room
finished out with a painted cornice above a dentilated plate rail. All
of the furnishings are upholstered in a striking red and paired
with antique, wooden furniture. This opens into the Oak Sitting Room which
adjoins to Edith’s room on the other end, providing a private retreat for the couple. Edith’s bedroom is the grandest
bedroom in the house with gold walls and painted millwork. It
was finished out in the Louis the 15th style with only the finest and
most expensive furnishings to spoil her. We can continue up the back staircase towards
the third floor where guests would stayed. In the third floor living hall, we can imagine
one of the many resident musicians playing songs in the morning to gently wake guests from their
slumber. And at night, before turning in for bed, they could have cozied up to the fireplace
in an overstuffed chair and read a book under an electric light, something which
was almost unheard of at the time. We will skip the fourth floor as it was reserved
for staff and wind our way down to the basement. Down here we will find an indoor pool, once
again, illuminated with electric lights. And after making our way through stone
tunnels, we will find more amenities. Such as a gymnasium boasting the best work out
equipment that money could buy in the late 1800s. The Biltmore passed down through
the family over the generations, eventually being reduced to rest on only 8,000
of its original acres. In the modern day, the Biltmore remains privately owned
by George’s descendants and is open to the public as a house museum where over
100,000 people venture annually to admire the height of architecture and landscaping
from the bygone era of America’s Gilded Age. If you have ever visited I would love to
read about your experience down below in the comments section, and if you connected
with a certain room or feature in this video, let me know about it. As always, thank
you for watching and make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss
an exciting episode of "ThisHouse"
