The Biltmore Estate, built between 1889 and 1895 by George W. Vanderbilt, is the largest privately owned home in the United States. Nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the French château–style mansion embodies Gilded Age grandeur. Designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, the 250-room estate features lavish interiors, including a banquet hall, library with 10,000 books, and an indoor pool. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, famed for New York’s Central Park, planned the vast grounds, which once spanned 125,000 acres. Today, the Biltmore remains a striking symbol of luxury, artistry, and Vanderbilt’s vision.
The Biltmore Estate, named after the Vanderbilts’ ancestral home in Holland and the surrounding moors, took six years to build before opening on Christmas Eve 1895. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted initially dismissed the land as unsuitable but advised Vanderbilt to create gardens, farmland, and forests. Inside, the mansion boasted 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, a library of 10,000 books, and priceless treasures collected during Vanderbilt’s travels abroad.
George Vanderbilt, hailed as “one of the best read men in the country,” built a library of 10,000 books at the Biltmore Estate. In 1898, he married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, and they welcomed their daughter Cornelia in 1900. The estate became a hub for parties and literary guests like Edith Wharton. But tragedy struck in 1914 when Vanderbilt died at 51, leaving Edith to sell much of the property.
Biltmore/FacebookThe Biltmore Estate has been open to the public since 1930 and is a popular tourist destination in North Carolina today.
As Explore Asheville notes, there’s much more to the Biltmore Estate than the house itself (though the house is certainly one of the main draws). Visitors can also visit the estate’s gardens, trails, and the Biltmore winery, which is the most visited winery in the nation.
And though the grounds aren’t as sprawling as they once were, there’s certainly still plenty to explore. Visitors can ride horses, kayak in the waters nearby, and go bird watchin
