Day 70 - North Carolina

Day 70

Dec. 20

Asheville, NC

Dear Miss Smith

    Today is the last day of our trip in North Carolina. It seems like we just got here yesterday, but I think we saved the best for last. Today we had a quick breakfast, and then headed to Biltmore Estates for the day. We drove down the long three mile approach road, and even from a distance the place looked big, but as we were driving closer it kept growing, and growing, by the time we got there it was HUGE!

Grand Banquet Room

    When we arrived we went in to tour the house. We were told that the house has over 4 acres of floor space. We also learned that George Vanderbilt had it built for his summer home, and that his estate used to have 125,000 acres, including Mt. Pisgah. I probably don't need to mention that he came from a wealthy family. Everything was decorated for Christmas. The Grand Banquet Room was 72 feet long by 42 feet wide with a 70 foot high ceiling.

On one side of the room there was a triple fireplace. The fireplace was so tall that I think I could have stood up in it, and the mantle was so high that even if I stood on my toes, I would not be able to reach it. It must have been a little difficult for them to hang their stockings there at Christmas time, or maybe they hung them on one of the other 64 fireplaces in the house. I wonder how they decided which one to use. In the middle of the room there was a long table that had thirteen chairs on each side and one on each end. They must have liked having lots of company. I wonder if any of the Vanderbilt's guests ever got lost when they went to use one of the 43 bathrooms, and ended up spending the night in one of the 35 bedrooms, and getting found in the morning by one of the 80 servants? Since I can't ask them, I guess I'll just have to wonder.

Winter Garden

    One of Kristina's favorite places in the house was the Winter Garden. It had a marble floor, and there was light coming down on the many palms, ferns, flowers, and poinsettias through the windows in the domed ceiling.

Library

Billiard Room

Priscilla's favorite room in the house was the Library. Kristina and I also really liked the Library. It had walnut paneling on the walls, and a black marble fireplace, but I think the best part about it was all those books. We were told that there are over 10,000 volumes! I don't think that they ever had any trouble finding something new to read. There was also a small spiral staircase and a ladder in the room, so that you could get to the top bookcases. We were also told that George Vanderbilt spoke eight different languages fluently, and that the books in the library are in eight different languages. I think that if we had been allowed to read the books in the library, that we could have spent the whole day there just reading, but we weren’t allowed to, so we went to look at some more rooms.
    One of the rooms we looked at was the Billiard Room. One of my favorite things about this room was that it had hidden doors in the paneling of the wall next to the fireplace.

Edith Vanderbilt's Room

Another room we saw was the North Bedroom. We were told that this was George Vanderbilt's mothers bedroom before she died, and that later when he married Edith Styvessant Dresser, it became her bedroom. We also got to see George Vanderbilt's bedroom. It was the South Bedroom, and had a great view of his 125,000 acre estate. Later after his death, his wife Edith sold 87,000 acres of the estate to the United States Forest Service, for less than five dollars an acre. Later some of the land that they had left was developed into the town of Biltmore Forest, and some was sold for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were told that the estate today has about 8,000 acres.

Louis XIV Room

Main Kitchen

We also got to see the bedroom where George and Edith Vanderbilt's only child Cornelia Vanderbilt was born. It was the Louis 16th Bedroom. The bedroom was large and very pretty. We were told that Cornelia later married John Francis Amherst Cecil, and had two sons; George and William. We were told that her second son William was also born in this room. It seems like Cornelia must have named her sons after her father, George, and her grandfather, William. I wonder if George Vanderbilt named Cornelia the feminine version of his grandfather's name, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
    We also got to see the three kitchens; the Pastry Kitchen, the Rotisserie Kitchen, and the Main Kitchen. There was also a bowling alley. We were told that a servant would sit up above the bowling alley, and would set up the pins again when
the pins were knocked down.

Unfilled Indoor Swimming Pool

They also had an indoor swimming pool. The Breakfast Room, which they used for more informal dining, had Spanish leather on the walls. I really enjoyed seeing the Music Room also. During our tour we got to see rooms on the three different floors of the house not including the basement. We were told that the house has 250 rooms.
    After the tour, we made gingerbread houses with the pastry chef. That was really fun. Looking at all those gingerbread houses sure made us hungry, so we decided to go have lunch.

Our table was the third stall from the right

We went to eat at what used to be the stables, but has since been turned into a restaurant; the Stable Cafe. I know what your thinking. Yes, it has been cleaned since then. The food was delicious! They had so many special holiday options on the menu, that it was hard to decide what to eat.
After lunch we took a quick walk through some of the gardens: the Azalea Garden, the Italian Garden, the Bass Pond, and the English Walled Garden. There were other gardens too, but because it was so cold outside we didn't walk through them all.

Tapestry Gallery

    Later when it was starting to get dark we went back to Biltmore house for their Candlelight Tour. The house was full of traditional Christmas music, from the many ensembles, choirs, and soloists playing and singing. There was even music from the pipe organ in the Banquet Hall. I think I could have stood there listening to it all night, but I was curious to see what the rest of the house looked like with all the Christmas decorations at night, so we went to take a look.

George Vanderbilt's Room

The house was beautiful! All the fireplaces had a cherry fire roaring in them, and the candles gave a soft glow to the rooms. It almost seemed like we were stepping back in time, if it wasn't for all those Christmas trees loaded with electric lights. There were so many Christmas trees throughout the house, that we decided to have a contest, to see how many Christmas trees each of us could see before we left that night. I carefully kept count throughout the evening, but before we went to bed that night, I forgot how many Christmas trees I had seen. Priscilla also had been keeping count of how many Christmas trees she had seen, but she forgot about the contest halfway through the evening, so Kristina ended up winning the contest.

Grand Staircase

Even though I have forgotten how many Christmas trees I had seen, I have not forgotten how tall the Fraser fir was that they had set up in the banquet hall. It was 35 feet tall. We stopped for a little while to listen to the Christmas music in the Winter Garden. It was wonderful. Then we went to finish looking at the rest of the house.

While we were walking up the grand staircase, I looked out one of the windows that was facing the front of the house. There was a 55 foot Norway spruce decorated on the front lawn, with a fountain splashing behind it.

    While we were looking around, we were told that the estate took just over six years to build, and that it was opened on Christmas Eve 1895 to guests and friends. We also were told about a Christmas tradition started by George Vanderbilt in 1895. All the estate employees, workers, and their family's, were invited to the house on Christmas morning for a Christmas party. There were presents for them on the Christmas tree, and they had cakes and ice-cream. This tradition has been continued ever since that first Christmas at Biltmore estates. We also learned that George Vanderbilt's mother, used to read Christmas story’s to their guest's children, around a large table filled with delicious food. I really liked how the rest of the house looked at night with all the Christmas lights. I especially liked how the Music room, and the Library looked with all the candles, and the fires glowing. The evening was over all too quickly. When we left, we drove out of the Lodge Gate, which was decorated with white Christmas lights, and looked very pretty. I’ve really enjoyed our trip to North Carolina, and I hope we will do it again some time.

From,

Katelyn

P.S. I hope it’s warmer next time we come.