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I love that the America’s largest home, Biltmore Estate, is located only a few hours drive from our house in Raleigh.
We love to look at beautiful homes and imagine and dream, and the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, is the quintessential fairytale house.
It’s not just a house though. The Biltmore Estate is made up of 8,000 acres of woodland, lakes and ponds, and its sprawling grounds offer a variety of attractions for visitors to enjoy.
From wandering the halls of the Châteauesque-style mansion to sitting on manicured lawns and admiring the NC Mountains in the distance, there are so many things to do at Biltmore Estate.
In this guide, we share everything you need to know about visiting this decadent home and its grounds…
History of The Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore Estate is fairly close to the Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Mountains, a 5 minute drive from Asheville and only an hour’s drive from the popular town of Lake Lure.
It was owned by George Washington Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping and railroad tycoon who turned $100 into $1000 million.
He saw an opportunity with ferry boats in NYC and acted upon it. This lead him to recognize the opportunity in the railroad and become one of the wealthiest men in the world.
So, now you know where George got the money to create such a magnificent home and estate! And he didn’t build just any home, it’s the largest private home in America.
His French Renaissance castle, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, was built over a six-year period and completed in 1895.
A few years later, bachelor George meets Edith on a cruise, they later marry and she moves into the home bringing much love and warmth to life at Biltmore.
Sadly, George died early in 1914 of appendicitis. Edith closed down much of the house in order to manage the estate better.
Their daughter, Cornelia, and her husband opened the estate to the public in 1930 to boost tourism in the area during the great depression.
Today, it is still owned by the Vanderbilt, and is run by his great-grandson, Bill Cecil Jr, who is also the CEO of Biltmore Company.
For more than a century, it’s been a place for people to visit and enjoy the hospitality ever since and is still a family business,…
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