With Craig and Jenette, we drove to Ashville, North Carolina to tour the Biltmore Estate. It's fun traveling with these guys. Jenette makes sure there's healthy snacks (a la Elaine) and water. They're both excellent conversationalists - we talked about many different things.
It was a beautiful clear, but cold, day. Here and there you can spot small patches of snow remaining from the previous weeks storm.
The estate was developed by George Vanderbilt in the late 1800's while he was still single and in his 20's. He fell in love with the property while walking through the woods surrounding Ashville. George's grandfather grew up on a New York farm, but went on to build a fortune in commerce. George's father doubled the fortune. George's mother would travel to Ashville in an effort to improve her health and George, the youngest of 8, would accompany her. It's easy for me to see how a New Yorker would feel healthier in Ashville.
George bought 1000's of acres to create the estate. He enlisted the help of Fredrick Law Olmstead, who designed Central Park, to develop the landscaping for the estate. If you ever wonder what Landscape Architecture means, a visit to the Biltmore would give you the answer. The grounds are beautiful.
These pictures are a poor representation. You can see more through the website:
I must confess that I struggle with the appaling lack of symmetry. "My friends tell me (and they should know) that I have a very discerning eye for art in architecture." (Paraphrasing Mrs. Elton in Jane Austen's Emma) And while I'm criticizing I might as well go on to say I'm dissapointed that the style is borrowed from a French chateau motif. An "American" theme would have been better. If only Frank Lloyd Wright could have been there, the lack of symmetry would be overridden by facinating structures. (I'm getting no help from Michelle here - she disagrees with my opinion on this - and probably with that part about my friends who "should know".)
This is the only interior picture we came away with. Had we been allowed to take pictures I would be posting images of things like the rubber floor in the electrical room that was setup to use either DC or AC electricity, the winding stone staircase, the indoor swimming pool, the massive organ, etc.
We could only take pictures outside the mansion. That's OK. Looking away, and to the west you can see the Smokey Mountains, part of the Appalachians that run from Georgia to Canada. On the other side of these mountains is Chattanooga, and that's the theme for the next blog entry.
