19th Anniversary

We celebrated our anniversary by going to Asheville, NC and visiting Biltmore. It was built by George Washington Vanderbuilt in 1895. (It took six years to build) Boasting four acres of floor space, the 250 - room mansion featured 33 family and guest bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, and an indoor swimming pool. In 1895 they owned 125,000 acres of forests, farms and a dairy. Today they only have 8,000 acres. Of course I couldn't take photos inside of the house, but I did buy a book that has wonderful pictures. It was a little overwhelming to me....................there were 22 servant bedrooms........about 8 kitchen staff bedrooms. I have a hard enough time keeping 5 children focused on chores, of course the servants probably work better than children.

This is the front view. In the picture below you can see an extension to the house. The lower roof to the right is the 12,000 sq ft. stable.

If you look at the picture at the top, you will see this part of the house next to the front door. It is the circular staircase that leads you to all levels of the house.

Here is a picture showing what the foundation of the house looked like in the back. That is the basement where they had a large swimming pool, bowling alley, dressing rooms for guests, weight room. Remember, this is 1895..........all, very modern stuff.

Frederick Law Olmsted, American's foremost landscape architect, designed the gardens, forested areas, and farm. There was an Italian Garden, shrub garden, walled garden, rose garden, conservatory, spring garden, and azalea garden. We did not walk through all of them because it was pretty hot and humid the day that we went.

the conservatory

Here Warren is standing by what use to be a dairy. Today it is a winery.

Can you believe how big these pots are. They were everywhere.