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America's Largest and Finest House George Vanderbilt was a well-educated young man who loved the finer things of life and had the money to buy them. Grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, builder of steamships and railroads, he had inherited a vast fortune and was using it to acquire a magnificent collection of art, books, and other fine things. But where to put it all? Why not build the biggest and finest house in America just for that purpose? So at age twenty-two, that's what he decided to do. He instructed a lawyer to begin buying the beautiful mountain land he had gazed upon so fondly while vacationing in Asheville, and within two years he owned 150,000 acres of it. He hired architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design and build his house for him. It took five years to complete the 250-room mansion, and when it was finished, Christmas 1895, it was grand indeed. Vanderbilt married soon afterward and the house became home for him, his wife, Edith, and their daughter, Cornelia. After Vanderbilt's death in 1914 at age forty-nine, his widow gave much of the land in the estate, where the nation's first tree farm and forestry school were established, to the federal government to form the nucleus of the first national forest, Pisgah. The Biltmore Estate, still in the family, now has about 11,000 acres and operates a large dairy and winery. The grounds and formal gardens, including the largest azalea garden and finest English rose garden in America, are open to the public, as are eighteen rooms of the house, including the 72- by 42-foot dining hall, with it's arched 75-foot ceiling, triple fireplaces, and the world's largest wrought iron chandelier, and the library with its rich walnutwood and 20,000 leather-bound rare volumes. Several movies, including Peter Sellers's last film before his death, Being There, have been made at the house. The estate is on US 25 South, near Interstate 40.
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