Asheville, NC Vacation - Part 1 - Biltmore Estate

We recently returned from a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, and this is the first of five posts where I'll share a bit of what we saw and learned in this 'new-to-us' part of the country.  As you probably know, the house pictured here is the Biltmore Estate.  It was built in 1895, I believe, and it's really grand.  It was owned by George and Edith Vanderbilt.  We stayed at the Inn on the Biltmore property and had a package that included an early morning tour with a guide and a very limited number of people.  For us, that meant arriving before the Biltmore was open to others in the public.  Our tour was conducted by a very knowledgeable young woman and included one other couple and us.  Perfect!  We were warned that there would be a lot of stairs (over 300) and a lot of standing (which there was), but it was very, very interesting.  Our guide told us that she was from the Asheville area and that she had first visited the Biltmore when she was 12 years old.  She said she knew right then that she wanted to work there.  As I said, she gave a great tour.

I'm going to share several pictures below, but not write a lot of commentary.  Today's pictures will show some of the more formal rooms and family bedrooms and tomorrow, I'll show the activity/exercise areas and the staff quarters.  Plus I'll give a couple of pictures from the area of our hotel and also a bit about the 'Monet & Friends' exhibit that we saw the second day we were at the Biltmore.  Hope you enjoy my little 'tour'.

The lion outside the Biltmore House.  We wandered around a bit as we were waiting for our tour to begin.

This is the beautiful entry area at the Biltmore House.  Light and greenery abound.  As we began our tour, our guide told us that each room has a different type of ceiling.

I took a picture of the ceiling here in order to illustrate that our guide was correct.  Every room was different.

This is the major dining room and I'm not sure how many could be seated at this table (expanded).  There are 25 chairs at the table in this picture.  Maybe 60 or so to the full extension.  The dining room was massive and gorgeous.  

The organ loft in the dining room.  We were able to visit that loft toward the end of our tour.  There is an organ there now and it plays throughout the day.  The view from that balcony was just 'wow!'.

A smaller dining room that was used as a breakfast area for single visitors, both male and female.  Married people had breakfast in their guest rooms, but apparently, Mrs. Vanderbilt was something of a matchmaker.  Unmarried guests could chat together here with all propriety.  

This is a shot of the library.  It was massive and amazing.  I've forgotten how many thousands of books the guide said are in the Biltmore.  Not all are in the library.  Books are everywhere.  

Another shot in the library.  I tried not stand on my head trying to see all the titles!  Ha!

George Vanderbilt's bedroom, the largest bedroom in the house.  It was indeed massive and made that bed look very small.

This was a hidden closet door off to the side of the bed in Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom.  It was one of many 'hidden' rooms that were found all over the house.  

Edith Vanderbilt's bedroom was not quite as large as George's.  Beautiful though.  There was a family sitting room between their two rooms.

I show this picture as an example of  a guest room for unmarried female guests.  There was a private bathroom off each guest room and also a sitting area with a desk.  Those beds looked very short to me though.  

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I had many more pictures of the tour, but can't post all of them.  Way, way too many.  This gives you a glimpse of the 'upstairs' part of the house.  Tomorrow's post will show the staff areas and exercise rooms.  Just think of how many people it would take to keep this Estate running.  So many....