Biltmore is the largest single home ever built in the United States. It was built near Asheville, North Carolina and is freaking huge. I could not imagine living in such a place, with 250 rooms I would not even know what to put in each of them. The staff you would need to clean such a place would be massive. Though you could get plenty of exercise just going around the whole place.
But there is much more to the place than just the house. It was built on previously over farmed land that was not near barren and brought back to a forest by the father of the forestry service. Which was born out of the building of the Biltmore and restoring the land.
Also the grounds had working farmland, dairy farm, winery, and horse barn. The goal was for the place to be completely self sustaining. If this was built today Vanderbilt would have all the modern things such as windmills and solar so that the house would not depend on the grid.
It was a wonderful day strolling the grounds and touring the home. I paid extra to get the architecture tour that took me deep into the attic and out onto the roof pointing out all the features that the house was built with. Such as the carved decorations that include include trefoils, flowing tracery, rosettes, gargoyles, and at prominent lookouts.
I do hope to get back during the holiday season when they fully deck out the place for Christmas. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures.
