Biltmore Estate

By Deane Barker • • tags: architecture, geography •

This is a large, Gilded Age home in Ashville, North Carolina. It was built by the Vanderbilts in the early 1890s.

It would technically be the largest private residence in the United States at 135,000 sq. ft., but it’s been a museum since the 1950s. It’s owned by a private company, open to the public. There are several hotels available on the estate grounds for visitors.

It has 235 rooms, 35 bedrooms, and 43 bathrooms.

Why I Looked It Up

I saw this picture on a car forum on Reddit:

Someone had captioned it, “An F-Body in front of the Biltmore.”

I proceeded to do some research on it, and even watched a cheesy Christmas movie called A Biltmore Christmas.

I realized that I had confused this with The Broadmoor, in Colorado.

Links from this – Gilded Age July 8, 2023
This a period of American history at the end of the 19th century. Opinions differ on when it started – certainly post-Civil War, but various accounts have it starting in the 1860s or 1870s and running through the end of the century. The period was characterized by enormous post-bellum economic...