Black Mountain and Asheville

The Stevens "Girls"

Before we headed off for Black Mountain for the “Sassy Stevens” Girls’ Weekend we planned to find some Bears in Cades Cove. After all, I had had great luck the day before.

Yesterday's Bear

Instead we found rain. So much rain that we decided to head on to North Carolina. I am not going to blog about the actual girls’ weekend because, first, I don’t really blog about family interactions and, second, I doubt that anyone would be interested if I did.

Melissa, Melanie, Julie and Caty

But, I will cover a few things.

First, the house was perfect. We found it through HomeAway and it was huge and ridiculously cheap. In fact, it worked out to less than $130 a person for three nights. And, we could have accommodated four more without having to double up in any of the beds!

Second, the view was fabulous – morning, noon and night.

Pretty

Third, we had a great time hanging out together and playing games.

Melissa explains it all

It is nice to get together with family from time to time.

Photo shoot

From a travel blog perspective, there are two things worth mentioning.

First, we ate at a fabulous tapas restaurant called Curate. I wish I had pictures of the sangria, chicken croquettes, patatas bravas, stuffed piquillo peppers, chorizo in potato chips, olives, cheese, albondigas and any other goodies I can’t even remember. But, it was authentic and very tasty.

My, oh, my; Photo: Curate

Second, Caty and I toured the Biltmore Estate. 

Long view of the Biltmore

Originally, the whole group was planning to go, but everyone else decided to shop and drink instead. 

It was just Caty and me on a glorious spring day

The tickets and signs say that photography is not allowed the mansion, so we didn't take cameras. Then, we saw lots of people taking pictures unchallenged. Still, we didn’t, so the only pictures we have to share are of the gardens and the winery.

Beautiful wisteria

The 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate is in Asheville, North Carolina. It features a Château-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet of floor space and 135,280 square feet of living area. It is one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age.

It is still owned by one of Vanderbilt's descendants; Photo: Biltmore

Designed by New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who had previously designed houses for other Vanderbilt family members, the four-story Indiana limestone home has a 375-foot asymmetrically balanced facade with two projecting wings. 

The home's carved decorations include trefoils, flowing tracery, rosettes and at prominent lookouts, gargoyles. The large gargoyles are purely for decoration instead of their normal use to direct water away from a building.

Very ornate

The house has attached stables, a carriage house and a courtyard to protect the house and gardens from the wind. The 12,000-square-foot complex housed Vanderbilt's prized driving horses and the carriage house opposite the stables stored his 20 carriages in addition to any of his guest's carriages. The area now houses stores, a snack bar and a restaurant where we had a delicious lunch.

More great food

Biltmore has a total of 250 rooms, including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms and an intercom system. The principal rooms of the house, located on the ground floor, include a winter garden, banquet hall ...

You could have a great dinner party; Photo: Biltmore

... organ gallery, music room, tapestry gallery and library.

The second floor is accessed by the cantilevered 102-step grand staircase spiraling around a four-story, wrought iron chandelier holding 72 light bulbs. The second floor houses a living hall, George Vanderbilt's gilded bedroom ... 

Quite the room; Photo: Biltmore

... his wife's Louis XV-style oval-shaped bedroom and many guest rooms.

The third and fourth floors, which house more guest rooms, are not part of the tour.

The basement houses an indoor 70,000-gallon heated swimming pool (now empty) that had underwater lighting; dressing rooms so that guests did not have to walk through the mansion in their bathing costumes; one of the nation's first bowling alleys in a private residence; and a gymnasium with once state-of-the-art fitness equipment. 

The gym; Photo: Biltmore

It is also the location for the main kitchen ... 

You need a big kitchen for a big dining room; Photo: Biltmore

... pastry kitchen, rotisserie kitchen, walk-in refrigerators, servants' dining hall, laundry rooms and additional bedrooms for staff.

Vanderbilt employed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (he also designed Central Park) to design the grounds. He created a park surrounding the house and established farms along the river. 

Spring flowers

He also replanted the rest of the grounds as a commercial timber forest. The first forestry education program in the U.S., the Biltmore Forest School, was established on the estate grounds in 1898.

The intentionally rustic three-mile approach road winds through natural-looking foliage and shrubbery to provide a relaxing journey for guests. There are also 75 acres of formal gardens that include an Italian formal garden, a walled garden, a shrub and rose garden, fountains and a conservatory ... 

Conservatory

... with individual rooms for palms and orchids.

Hothouse flowers

Across the estate is the former diary barn, which has been converted into a winery. 

Winery

The area also features hotels and restaurants.

The house was built between 1889 and 1896; Photo: Biltmore

In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite. 

A three-mile railroad spur was constructed to bring in materials; Photo: Biltmore

Construction on the main house required more than 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons.

Vanderbilt went on extensive buying-trips overseas where he purchased thousands of furnishings including tapestries, carpets, prints, linens and decorative objects dating between the 15th and the 19th century. The house officially opened on Christmas Eve 1895. Vanderbilt married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898 and their only child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born at the estate in 1900, and grew up there.

Driven by cost of managing the estate, Vanderbilt agreed to sell 87,000 acres to the federal government. After he died unexpectedly in 1914 of complications from an emergency appendectomy, his widow completed the sale to carry out her husband's wish that the land remain unaltered and that property became the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest. She intermittently occupied the house until the marriage of her daughter 

Cornelia Vanderbilt marries John Francis Amherst Cecil in 1924; Photo: Biltmore

The Cecils went on to have two sons who were born in the same room as their mother.

In an attempt to bolster the estate's financial situation during the Great Depression, Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930 at the request of the City of Asheville, which hoped the attraction would revitalize the area with tourism. When the Cecils divorced, Cornelia left the estate and John remained until his death in 1954. Their eldest son George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil occupied rooms in the wing until 1956. At this point Biltmore House ceased to be a family residence and has continued to be operated as a historic house museum, with increasing portions of the house opened to viewing. 

It is used for concerts, special programs and weddings, too.

A Biltmore wedding; Photo: Biltmore

We overheard a Biltmore employee saying that the owners do have a separate house on the property.

William A. V. Cecil, Sr. returned to the estate in 1960 and joined his brother to manage the estate and make it a profitable and self-sustaining enterprise like his grandfather envisioned. He eventually inherited the estate upon the death of his mother in 1976, while his brother George inherited the then-more-profitable dairy farm. In 1995, while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the estate, Cecil turned over control of the company to his son, William A.V. Cecil, Jr.

The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, and remains a major tourist attraction with almost 1 million visitors each year.

On the grounds

During our visit, the Biltmore was also showing a collection of gowns -- many of them wedding gowns from motion pictures. To complement the collection, many parts of the estate were decorated as for a wedding.

Worn by Helena Bonham Carter in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 1994; Photo: Biltmore

If you are planning to visit the Biltmore, beware. The website can be confusing. It costs $50 to get into the house and grounds. Tours are additional. So, don't be fooled by the $17 tour price -- that's on top of the $50. Reservations are essential on some days, so do check before you go. Parts of the house are disability accessible, but not all of it is.

Trip date: April 18-26, 2016