Hello, everyone, and welcome back to then again, the podcast of the Northeast Georgia History Center. I am Marie Bartlett, the director of the AdA May ivester Education center. Here today I have with me Leslie Jones, our manager of our hives and collections, and also now our curator. And today we are going to be talking about the Biltmore estate. Woohoo. America's castle, essentially our castle, for sure.

Yeah.

Especially it's down here in the south. I feel like we can claim it.

Yeah, definitely.

So I have been to the Biltmore just, like a couple times, and it is just always a magical experience. I was just talking to Guada about it, and we were looking it up online, and she was like, oh, my gosh, this looks like a fairy tale. And it is. It is beautiful. The Biltmore is definitely, I think, probably one of the most magnificent homes in America. It definitely has this wow factor.

Absolutely.

And I really don't think a lot of other historical homes have here in America. So I want to just start. How many times have you been to the Biltmore?

Oh, gosh. I always made it a tradition to at least go once a year, but I did get a season pass in 2020, which did not work out since of COVID But I did get to go a few times in 2020, but at least once a year for, I'd say maybe ten years.

Wow. Nice.

Yeah, well, everything changes. There's temporary exhibits all the time.

The last time I went more recently was that they had the Downton Abbey costume.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh. That was such a good exhibit, too.

It was so good. It was basically for anyone who doesn't know and hasn't been following this exhibit around the country, it was basically a pop up museum, essentially, about Downton Abbey. And it had a lot of things from the show. And also my favorite, like, so many of the costumes from the show. And that was at the Biltmore, which I felt like it fit so thematically with Downton Abbey because it's like America's grand european house.

And I loved that they had recreated some of the rooms. That was really cool, especially the downstairs where all the servants were with the bells and everything. Oh, it was amazing.

Such a good exhibit. So today we are going to be talking about the Biltmore itself, how it was built, why it was built. There's so much to explore with the Biltmore, from the people to the place to the people who worked there, the people who lived there, the building itself, the gardens. But today, because we only have, like, an hour, we are going to be talking about the building itself and, of course, the people who were key in building the building.

Right.

So what can you tell me about the original owner of the Biltmore estate and their vision for setting out to build this magnificent house?

Yeah.

So it was built by George Washington Vanderbilt. He was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. His father, William Vanderbilt, actually gave a good bit of money to each of his children, unlike Cornelius, who only gave money to the oldest son. And so each of them got some. So George Vanderbilt got quite a hefty. I think it was around $100 million. And that was just the youngest child. I can't imagine who got the most. But he went to Asheville because he had heard that the springs there had medicinal properties, and his mom had aching joints. So he took his mom there, and he just absolutely loved it, and he decided he wanted to buy some land there. So originally, it was just supposed to be a summer home, because they lived mostly in New York at the time, but then they built it, and I think he lived there basically the whole time until he passed away.

I mean, if you've ever seen Biltmore, you would be like, yes, I will just spend all of my time.

Yeah.

Like, I couldn't imagine. I mean, maybe there are more extravagant homes in New York, but the scenery of Asheville is also beautiful.

Yeah.

They had an entire block of Fifth Avenue that was all Vanderbilt homes. And unfortunately, they've been torn down, so we only have photos. Yeah, I know it's sad, but we still have the Biltmore, and we have the Newport homes. The Newport homes were. One of them was built by his brother, the oldest one, the one that got the most money, and his daughter's, Consuelo Vanderbilt, that you and I have both read about, and we absolutely love. She's got a great book. I highly recommend it.

It is very interesting.

It's very good.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of Vanderbilt homes. Just the ones in New York are gone.

So how did they go about the construction process for Biltmore, and how did that unfold? What challenges did they face? Because essentially, they are bringing so much stuff into this fairly mountainous region where there's not a whole lot.

Right. Yeah.

That's the basic thing. The elevation, the getting things through the woods, because they didn't have a clear path yet. Then they were building the gardens. They had to create all the gardens there and make sure that they could be maintained. So it was a struggle from the get go just to get supplies there, but then to keep workers for as long as it took. I think it took three to five years to complete, maybe even longer than that, honestly. And so I imagine, being a worker on that, they would eventually want to go home, but they have so much work to do. So that was also something they had to keep hiring people to keep working on it. Also, another thing that I thought was really interesting is Frederick Law Olmstead, who created Central park. He was in charge of constructing the outside, all the gardens and the greenhouse and all that. And he never once actually stepped foot on Biltmore except the very first meeting. And then after that, it was his apprentices. So I think that's an interesting challenge, too. How do you know that you're doing a good job if you're not there? And they didn't have a phone, so they couldn't go, hey, am I doing the right thing? So that also was a challenge, was the outside.

It's not like you can just send a picture via email and be like, hey, this is what it's looking like.

Exactly. It's not like they could hire someone to draw what they're constructing and then mail it to them. That would take forever.

It would be. I mean, it's one way to do it, but that would just take so long.

But he had so many projects going on at the same time. He just had his apprentices go and do it.

I think that's also a really good question and kind of lead into my next question is, what time period are we building this in? I don't know if we set the stage for our listeners.

Yeah.

So it was the 1890s, and it was actually opened on Christmas Eve.

How fun.

Yeah, I thought that was fun, too. So every year, Biltmore actually does Christmas celebrations. Have you been at Christmas before?

I did. That was the first time I ever went when I was little with my family.

Yeah.

With the giant trees. And they even have Biltmore after dark at Christmas, where they have all the candles and they recreate what all the home would have looked like during that period at night. It's beautiful.

Oh, that sounds gorgeous. So what does the architectural style of Biltmore, how does that reflect the time that it was built?

Yeah.

So I know you're really big on architecture.

I love architecture.

So I know you know that it's medieval themed, but that actually was a very big trend at the time we call medievalism, which is basically, they create what they think was during the middle ages. So a lot of the architecture there is based on what they were told or what they assumed with, like, Robin Hood and King Arthur and all that. They would use that in the theme, but it wasn't necessarily what actually was going on, but a lot of it. Even the tapestries in the living room or the dining room. Excuse me. And the tapestries in the tapestry room itself have a lot of panels, actually, from the middle ages that he had bought and put in there.

Every time I go and I'm just like, oh, my gosh, these are real medieval tapestries. They're just hanging in this home because he bought them and brought them over from Europe.

It's so crazy that you get to see them and they're in such good condition. They do a great job at preserving those, for sure. They do.

Also, doesn't he have, like, Napoleon's chess set in the library? He does, yeah.

And it was a gift. He didn't even buy it for himself.

Yeah.

The library is my all time favorite room. Is it yours, too?

There's so many wonderful rooms. That's true. If I could choose one. But the library is. It looks like it's out of beauty and the beast.

Yeah, absolutely. The fireplace know two people tall. They have doors that go to the guest room. So if they want a book, they just come down the specific hall and it leads them to the library. George Vanderbilt was a big, avid reader, and he actually knew six different languages. So a lot of the books are in different languages, too, which is. Absolutely.

I just. I read English.

You and me both.

Yeah, that's about it. But, yes, I thought when you approach Biltmore, it's kind of what you imagine a medieval castle would look like. But it's not a real medieval castle because I've been to real medieval castles, and they are fortresses. They are forts. They are not about comfort and lavishness at all. I looked at Biltmore's website just to kind of see what do they classify the Biltmore as? Because it's definitely medieval inspired. But they said that it is based on french medieval and Renaissance castles, and they called it chateau esque.

Oh, yeah. I guess I could see that, especially when you're coming to the front of the house and all the big fountain, the bridge at the very top that leads to that large gazebo. I could definitely see that out there.

Yeah.

So apparently, it's very heavily french inspired and very much french Renaissance revival, because if you think about, like, even with the roof line, some of it is. It doesn't quite look like a castle at the roof line. It looks more like a chateau or a palace, if you will, especially with that staircase. Oh, I love that staircase. It is gorgeous. But also I can see there is a lot of modernity brought into it as well, because it has kind of like, a little bits of those monsard roofs that were very popular in the second empire of France, and that was going on in the 1880s, 1890s. So it's kind of like this mashup of like, we're going to take all the old parts that we like from the medieval and the Renaissance, and then we're going to kind of put it into this giant, cool house that we like, but also we're going to have all of modern amenities, which I thought was really interesting.

Yeah.

Bilmore was actually the first house in us history to have an elevator.

Really? The first, very first ever.

Yeah.

And it still runs today. I don't know if you've ever been in it, but they let people go up and down in that elevator.

So cool.

Yeah.

So this is like the first one in a house. Not like the first one ever, but the first, right?

Yeah.

The one in a house itself, in a residence. It was the very first ever. Whoa.

Right. I feel like that really speaks to how insanely wealthy they were and then also how they were interested in combining this idea of french chateau palace with all the modern amenities.

Yeah, I never really thought about it before until you said it. They would have the billiard room with kind of like an asian influence, but then they would have modern billiard table with the buttons that you can push for the butler and all that stuff. It's so different than. And every room seems to be a different theme like that.

Yes, different themes, different colors, like different color rooms. Don't they have like a Louis, the something like 14th, 15th bedroom? Yes, very french. I feel like they were like. Yes, very french. Very french influence.

It seems like he just went, I like this. I'm going to steal that idea. I like this. I want to buy five for my house, even though we only need one. It just seems like he just went everywhere and he could. With how much money he.

So there is another house called the Hay house, which is also kind of tries to claim the title of the southern palace down in Macon, Georgia. And it is a beautiful home. It's nowhere as big or as grand as Biltmore, but if I had to choose, like, a second or third place for very grand historic home, that one would be one of them. It was also a little bit older than Biltmore. It's built in the 1850s. And I was just impressed by that one and also by Biltmore that they have running water, and that Biltmore, of course, had electricity, but also how french they were in style and european, because these people who were so wealthy, they could just go on, know, would be considered the grand tour of the continent of Europe. And these people, they would buy art as they went and then just ship it back home to their house. And then they would also take all of these ideas that they saw from these historic homes, from these palaces, and be like, I want this piece of this. I would like stained glass here. I want a dome. And then just kind of put it into their, like, it's not an uncommon thing for these very wealthy, elite people to do, which I thought was incredibly fascinating.

Something that I also thought that was really interesting is George Vanderbilt and his wife were supposed to be on the Titanic. They were searching for items for the house, and they were coming back home. I think it was George Vanderbilt's mother who said, you should probably take a different route. She thought something was going to happen, and it's just absolutely fast. So they changed it the last minute to a different boat. Whoa. Yeah, it was during. I don't know if you saw the Titanic exhibit.

They had not there.

They had all the clothing and all that stuff, and they had mentioned it in the home, which is why I also love the temporary exhibits, because they share stuff that we just didn't know.

That's really fascinating. Maybe we should do. I'm not sure if we've done a podcast about the Titanic before. We've done a mini doc, if you will, a live stream during the pandemic about the Titanic, but I'm not sure if we've done a podcast.

Let's do it. I'm in.

Podcast.

Yeah.

Now, how did the initial intentions for the Biltmore evolve as it was being built? Were things added? Were things detracted as it was being built?

There's a few things I know that they added after going to different homes, like you said, and taking ideas. One, they originally had the idea for a swimming pool, but they actually added heat to it, which he had saw in Europe and he really liked. And so the bottom, if you go to Biltmore and you go to the pool, you can see at the very bottom, there's this pipe. It's hot water that runs out of that pipe. Something else is the lions in the very front. When you're walking into the main door. Those lions were added afterwards. It was actually the idea of the architect, Richard Hunt, to add those lions. And then, as you know, the Vanderbilt family, they created their own crest, and their basic logo kind of is the acorn. So there are acorns. It's honestly, I think it's kind of copying the breakers in Newport, because there are acorns everywhere, on the ceiling and the furniture everywhere. And that house was built first. So there was a couple things I know that they initially did not think about before, but they added closer to the end.

So do we know why they chose an acorn to be their family emblem and to have it hidden around their house? Essentially, yeah.

So Elma Vanderbilt, the wife of William Kaseem Vanderbilt, actually came up with their crest, and the acorn was supposed to represent prosperity and strength, which I think is classic vanderbilt.

Very prosperous, very strong family. So how has the Biltmore impacted the local economy and the community of Asheville, North Carolina, over the years?

I know that they are the largest home that has tourism because it's open, and they're the main source of income for think. I love Asheville, but I don't think it would be as big as it is if it wasn't for Biltmore. I'm not sure if Ashvillians would agree, but I think it is a main source, considering most people go to see Biltmore and then afterwards go to town. So I think it's their number one destination, and I think it's a lot of people's destinations here, because we don't have the houses like that. We could either go to Macon, which I didn't even know about. I'm going to have to go now. We could go down to that house that's 3 hours away, or we could go to Asheville, that's 2 hours away. So I think it's made a big impact on the south, for sure.

It is definitely a destination that people want to go to, especially during Christmas time, when they have it all decorated so beautifully, or even when they have those really cool, special people, what will go for that? And then also to see the house, because people like us, we've gone a couple of times, but, oh, there's something like slightly new, a different temporary exhibit, like, oh, I want to go see that, which is really cool. And also, didn't the Vanderbilt, while building Biltmore, also basically created the town for their workers to stay in? Yeah.

So they have a farm that's still running. They actually have. I don't know if you've ever had the ice cream there. It's incredible. It's made from the milk from the cows on their farm. It's incredible. I highly recommend it. They also have horse stables, and they have a winery, and there's actually still a couple houses on Biltmore's site that people live in. The groundskeeper. People like that are still actually there today.

Are they descendants from the original groundkeeper, or is it, like, the groundkeeper who's currently working there?

That's a great question, and I definitely want to find out. Now, how cool would that be?

It's like, this job has been in my family for generations. Oh, I would love that, because I know the Biltmore itself is still owned by the Vanderbilts, correct?

Yes.

Their descendants still running this, right?

Yeah.

At this point, I think it's the great great grandchildren.

That's really cool to have that in their family for so long and for it to be a beloved, almost like, focal point of that community from the people who go there for tours, for people who work. Even when my mom and grandma went, the last time we went, and we were just kind of walking around the little village that's kind of, like, right outside the front gates of Biltmore. And we went into this beautiful church, and they were just practicing the organ, and we're like, can we come in? And we were surprised to learn that that church was actually built by Vanderbilt for his workers and for everybody in the town, because it's a very grand church for this small mountain town. And we were like, oh, my gosh, that's so cool. And it has some beautiful stained glass, and it has really interesting architecture as well. And apparently it's where his daughter got married. Oh, okay. Yeah. So his daughter got married there at the church in town, and then they went back to the Biltmore, the house, for the reception. It was just really cool, because I was like, oh, my gosh. The Biltmores have literally touched everything in this town, it feels like, from building certain buildings or public works, essentially, to support the infrastructure for the workers who supported their house.

Yeah.

And up until recently, they still lived in was, I think the great grandson was the first not to live in the home. But they have a portrait next to Frederick Olmsted's portrait, and next to Richard Hunt's portrait is the family portrait of them today. So you can see how it evolves, too. But there's a large portrait of the great grandson and his family. They were the ones that decided they weren't going to live in bilborn anymore. I can't imagine having tens of thousands of people all around. How do you even go get food? Know, have something made? Do they have their own kitchen, like a modern kitchen. It's just so crazy to think about.

Yes. That sounds almost like the white house, where there's the one floor that you can't go on to because that's where they actually live. And then there's the public floor.

Yeah.

Good gracious. That's a lot of people around all the time. What if you just want to go around in your pjs?

I imagine you also could never sleep in because there's so many people outside.

You'Re going to hear chatter.

And they can't modernize the window.

No, the glass is historic.

Yeah.

Speaking of that, the kind of the levels. Now, you have been on some of the behind the scenes tours of the biltmore. Yeah. So can you tell us a little bit about the different rooms of the house and how the house is formatted to have the large public rooms, but then also private bedrooms and areas for the staff?

So when you go on the grand staircase, you can go to the first two or three. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe. I don't remember two or three. And then the very top floor is blocked off to visitors. And that's actually where the architectural tour starts. You get to go up to the very top floor and they have a model of Biltmore of how they were going to build it up there. And they also actually take you up to the roof so you can see the architecture and they tell you exactly what's changed and what's the same. And they describe the different figures in the stone because they have gargoyles, they have people, they have all kinds of different figures. That one's actually my all time favorite tour. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about the physical house itself. And then there's another one. It's visiting the servants quarters. So on the bottom, we get to see the butler's pantry, some of the rooms, because we don't actually get to see those on the regular tour. We get to see the living area, the kind of dining room area. That one's really great, too. But the architecture one is my favorite. The one thing I have not done, actually, is the audio tour. Just because I know so much. At this point, I'm not sure I would learn anything new except the church thing. That was really cool.

But the church thing is, like, outside of Biltmore. Like, you have to go into the town and they don't really publicize it unless you go in and you start chatting up the organist. And then I saw somewhere it was something about one of the Vanderbilt's wedding, and I was like, oh, my gosh, that's her. And that's the church. And she's right outside the church. So, yeah, it's not like part of the house. It's, like, outside in the village. But it was just really interesting. And we went there because it had snowed, and Biltmore was closed until a certain time. So we were just killing time in the village, and then we learned all that interesting stuff. It was really cool.

It must have been so pretty. I've never been there when it snowed.

Well, we saw the village and the church when it was all snowy. I think Biltmore was closed that day for some reason. It was either like a Sunday or they closed because of snow and trying to get down the mountain roads in snow.

Good point.

Yeah.

So we ended up going to the Biltmore, and all the snow had essentially melted off of it at that point. But it was cold. It was a chilly February day. But, yeah, it was really cool. It was really cool. Is there anything else you want our listeners to know about Biltmore or things to think about as they go to the Biltmore? If they've gotten to, or if they get the experience to go?

I think something interesting to mention is that George Vanderbilt put basically all of his money into it when he passed away. They were in debt. Really? Yeah, because of all the stuff they did for the home. And that's why his daughter opened the home to the public, was for the upkeep of the place. I think that's something definitely to carry on. And also downstairs is kind of in the basement is really cool. In the Halloween room. They call it that because they actually one night had a party, and they drew all over the walls, and it's still there today. And I know it's called Halloween, but it's not actually spooky. They just did it at. So. But that's also one of my favorite rooms because you can like, their actual personal touch to it. So Biltmore is the best out of all. The historic homes are my all time favorite historically, any museum. And that one is, as I've told everybody on staff, is, like, my favorite place of all time.

It is a really cool experience to go and walk through it. And essentially what we were saying when we started talking about this is that it's probably the closest to a french palace that you're going to get to in America. So if you want to kind of have that experience of walking through a grand palace that kind of looks like Europe, but you don't have the ability to go to Europe. Well, hey, there's like one 2 hours away from the northeast Georgia history Center that you can go and walk through. And they have, like you were saying, it's a beautiful estate. They have hundreds upon hundreds of acres and a winery and the dairy. The dairy.

They have walking trails. You can actually go horseback riding. They have golf. They have all kinds of outdoor activities, too. I would love to go more than one day. I usually just go a day and see all the stuff I always love to see, and then I go. But one day I would love to stay for a long period of time. So I get to do some of the stuff outside. It's always scheduled, too. So it's either you get to see.

The house or you get to see.

The outside because there's way too much to do.

Absolutely. So our listeners will have to let us know. Email us at info@negachc.org if you have any interesting stories about your visit to the Biltmore and also just about what you would be interested with other podcast topics as well. Thank you so much for being with us today, Leslie.

Thank you for having me.

Then again, is a production of the Northeast Georgia History center in Gainesville, Georgia. Our podcast is edited by media producer Guada Rodriguez. Our digital and on site programs are made possible by the Ada May I, Vista education Center. Please join us next week for another episode of then again.