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In rural North Carolina, these three left not only a A staff of hundreds was required to keep it going.
mansion like no other, but also an intricate tapestry of
landscape design that included the first roots of organ- Today, “all” that is left of this barony is 8,000 acres,
ized forest management in the United States. One maintained by a staff of 2,000.
might think that such a place, costly to maintain, would
have been set aside as a national or state park, or run Biltmore is a house built from a man’s vision, work-
by a foundation. But, like the best of old money, the Bilt- ing with other men. Not until 1898, nearly three years
more mansion and surrounding grounds remain owned after his palace was completed, did a woman enter the
by Vanderbilt’s heirs, attracting 1 million visitors a year. hierarchy when Vanderbilt was married in Paris at age
33 to Edith Stuyvesant Dresser. Imagine her surprise
Commissioned by young Vanderbilt to build the while riding in a carriage with her new husband as they
finest private house in the United States, Hunt styled coursed down Olmsted’s three-mile approach road and
a Renaissance French chateau, a design compared to drew up to Biltmore for the first time. From the guide-
the Chateau de Blois. On four levels, It would have 4 book: “When they arrived at the Estate in October, after
acres of floor space, 33 family and guest bedrooms, 43 their honeymoon in Europe, Mrs. Vanderbilt saw her
bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and three kitchens. Beyond room just as it appears today,” decorated in the style of
the imposing front entrance, as well as out back, were Louis XV.
125,000 acres of forest, a farm and commercial dairy,
250 acres of wooded park and five “pleasure gardens.” Most country estates of the era were near the cities

140 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018