Falling in Love at the Biltmore
“When you think of Asheville, imagine great craft beer, people who live unconventional and artistic lifestyles, rolling green mountains, and, of course, the Biltmore Estate.”
by Terry Burger
Asheville, the largest city in Western North Carolina, is the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina. It is located at the union of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. According to 2019 estimates, the city's population was 92,870 which reflects an increase of nearly 10,000 residence since the 2010 census.
As gadabouts who are practicing Catholics, Autumn and I always look for a church where we can visit and/or attend Mass while in any given area we visit. Asheville is dominated by various Christian denominations and there are a number of Roman Catholic churches in the area, including the beautiful and historic Basilica of St. Lawrence.
Our Experience of Asheville
March 24, 2019
For many years, I dreamed of visiting the Biltmore Estate located in Asheville, North Carolina. The main residence of the Biltmore Estate is the Biltmore House which was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. With 178,926 square feet, it is the largest privately owned house in the United States. The house is still owned by the descendants of George Vanderbilt. The Estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and welcomes 1.4 millions visitors annually.
Aware of my desire to visit Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, Autumn secretly planned a trip to the area to ensure my dream was made manifest into reality. Autumn began by contacting Carolina Mornings and arranging for a beautiful log cabin nestled deep within the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The long, steep gravel driveway to the cabin appreciably challenged my Toyota Prius as Autumn gunned her mercilessly up the mountainside. I wondered if she would make it to its pinnacle (the Prius, not Autumn). But to her credit, she dug in deep with her treads and employed the brawn of her front wheel drive to deliver us in short order to the steps of the cabin's front door.
This picture is of the living room of the cabin Autumn rented for us. There was also a game room with a pool table and darts, a formal dining room, a fully stocked kitchen area, a master bedroom downstairs, and a second bedroom upstairs. The deck on the back of the cabin provide a beautiful view of the rolling mountains and held a massive hot tub that was absolutely inspiring on the cool spring evenings that March in the mountains commonly delivers.
As we sauntered through the cabin to explore all of its offerings, we noticed a hornets' nest hanging from the rafters near the staircase. Given there were no hornets still claiming residency in the nest I can honestly say it added nicely to the overall ambiance of the cabin.
This picture, which bares the hornets' nest, overlooks the dining room. To the right of the dining room is the kitchen area where, off to the right of it is the aforementioned game room. To the left of the dining room are doors leading out to the cabin's wrap around deck. Just down the short hallway in front of the staircase is found the living room and the master bedroom.
After the half-day drive to the cabin, Autumn was immediately impressed with the large master bedroom and bath. Being a country girl at heart who longs to someday to design a home for us, Autumn makes mental notes of all the places we stay or visit so that she might incorporate the bits and pieces she most admires into our forever home.
In retrospect, I wish I had taken a picture of the master bath. It wasn't extra large or extravagant. In fact, it was relatively small and unpretentious considering the overall size of the cabin. Yet, it was impeccably designed, did not feel cramped for space, and wasted none of its available area.
Autumn was so happy to provide me with the opportunity to fulfill a long held dream. I think this picture perfectly captures the love and respect we have for each other. Even more importantly, it captures two best friends who are thankful for having miraculously found each other despite the overwhelming noise and frequent opposition of the world.
As the day wound down I realized that the next day was going to be a very big day for us. A dream come true - the Biltmore Estate! While I knew there would be many memories resulting from the day ahead, I could never have imagined how beautiful and everlasting those memories would be.
When we arrived at the Biltmore Estate we quickly parked the car and boarded a shuttle bus to transport us to the Biltmore House. Full of excitement normally reserved for a child, I snapped a quick picture of the two of us. I made a silly face that, as it turns out, still makes Autumn smile every time she sees it. Not laughs, mind you - smiles. She likes it when we forget the world around us and free ourselves from social norms and expectations.
In other words, she loves it when we are just ourselves.
The ride from the parking lot we chose to the Biltmore House took about 5 minutes. When the shuttle bus stopped to let its passengers off, tears filled my eyes. I cannot explain in words how much it meant to me to be at the Biltmore Estate with my best friend.
If you look at this picture you can see one of the shuttle buses in front of the Biltmore House. Ours actually parked along the right driveway near the house. Stepping off the bus I was immediately amazed at the vastness of the house.
I discovered the Biltmore House has 250 rooms in the house, including 35 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and 3 kitchens which are spread over four acres of floor space. The four-story home is made primarily of Indiana limestone and sits on an 8000 acres estate. The house was assessed at 157.2 million in 2017.
To the right of the marbled Entrance Hall is the octagonal sunken Winter Garden which is surrounded by stone archways with a ceiling of architecturally sculptured wood and multifaceted glass. The centerpiece, pictured here, is a marble and bronze fountain sculpture titled Boy Stealing Geese, created by Karl Bitter.
The Winter Garden was fashionable in the Victorian Era and serves as a photo prop setting for the Biltmore Estate for those interested in purchasing a picture.
Of course, I decided Autumn and I needed our picture snapped to record this moment in our history. The photo package included several copies with a variety of sizes. This is actually a picture of the original picture, so the quality is not as good as the original. But you get the idea.
Moving beyond the Winter Garden we soon found ourselves on the back of the house which overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains. We paused for a moment to enjoy the view as we listened to the history of the house on our self-guided audio tour. I would love to return in the fall someday when the leaves are masterfully warming the landscape with their coat of many colors.
The Biltmore House contains four floors, a basement, and the Bachelors' Wing. One of my favorite rooms in the house is this office study and library. Leather bound books encased in hand-carved wooden bookcases and surrounded by the finest office furniture imaginable caused Autumn and I to dream of what it must have been like to both work and relax in this backdrop.
They say money can't buy happiness, but this room seriously puts this theory to the test.
Located in the Bachelors' Wing of the house, the Billiard Room is decorated with an ornamental plaster ceiling and rich oak paneling. It is equipped with both a custom-made pool table and a carom table (table without pockets). The room was mainly visited by men, but ladies were welcome to enter as well if they desired.
Secret door panels on either side of the fireplace led to the private quarters of the Bachelors' Wing. Female guests and staff members were not allowed in the private quarters.
Pictured here is a more intimate formal dining room complete with one of the 65 fireplaces found in the house. A faithful servant stands at the ready to meet the needs of every guest.
The Biltmore Estate continues to be one of the largest employers in the Asheville area.
Another of our favorite architectural designs in the house is the Biltmore Estate Grand Staircase. Amazingly, the Biltmore’s Grand Staircase is a marvel of physics built using counterbalance. The weight of each of the solid limestone slab steps is offset by the weight of the wall bearing down.
There is a 1,700-pound electric light fixture suspended from the middle of the grand staircase. The light fixture hangs from a single bolt that runs through steel girders under the dome roof. The bolt has been replaced only once since the house was built. Fortunately, the copper dome opens for easier access to the fixture.
The Biltmore House, which obviously spared no expense in its construction, has always had electricity and still contains an original electric Otis elevator.
The Banquet Hall is the largest room in the house. It measures 42 x 72 feet with a barrel-vaulted ceiling standing 70 feet high. Up to 64 guests guests could dine in the room. The table is surrounded by rare Flemish tapestries and a triple fireplace that spans on end of the hall.
On the opposite end of the hall is an organ gallery that accommodates a 1916 Skinner pipe organ. The Music Room was not completed and opened to the public until 1976.
To the left of the entrance hall is the 90-foot-long Tapestry Gallery, which leads to the Library, featuring three 16th-century tapestries representing The Triumph of Virtue Over Vice. Elsewhere on the walls are family portraits by John Singer Sargent, Giovanni Boldini, and James Whistler.
The two-story Library contains over 10,000 volumes in eight languages, reflecting George Vanderbilt's extensive pursuits in classic literature, works on art, history, architecture, and gardening.
If you know me, you know that I am NOT a fan of heights. It's not that I am afraid of heights, it's that I am afraid of falling. As a psychologist, I feel confident that I can argue there is a difference. Same with flying. I am NOT fearful of flying, I am fearful of crashing.
I digress.
With this in mind, we each purchased a roof tour ticket and headed to to top of the house. The first stop of the roof tour took us on a narrow balcony that led around a corner of the house. There was barely room to walk on the balcony. I was not a fan. Autumn loved every step. I maintain she is a freak.
The next stop took us on a flatter and wider surface that I was more comfortable on. In this picture, taken from the roof, we overlook the front lawn of the house.
From this location we headed to the highest point of the house which required walking up a very narrow staircase. I have to admit, I loved the view from the top. Getting there . . . well, that's another story altogether.
Autumn loves spending her free time surrounded by nature. Parks, lakes, forests, trails, mountains, the ocean- you name it. But something about trees, therein, have always been one of her favorite elements of nature. Below, she posed alongside two of her newfound friends on the estate.
Vanderbilt envisioned a park-like setting for his home. There are 75 acres of proper gardens which includes a Roman formal garden, a formal garden, a bush and tulip garden, water fountains, and a conservatory with individual rooms for palms and roses.
A closeup view of nature's fine details is always a delight for Autumn. "God is in the details" she will tell you. Here, in one of the multiple areas of the conservatory, she discovered a favorite and gave pause to offer thanks and record her appreciation.
We spent at least an hour in the various areas of the conservatory and could have spent much longer. But there is so much to see and so much ground to cover that we limited our time in order to take in more of the estate.
As we left the conservatory we headed toward the end of the front lawn where we could get a distant view of the Biltmore House and Estate.
A few sprinkles of rain fell while we were inside the conservatory, but fortunately the wind had moved them on to greener pastures by the time we began strolling the grounds.
A young man walking across the walkway agreed to take our picture with the Biltmore House in the background. We spent a good amount of time exploring this end of the grounds.
Before doing so, however, we stood and admired the view for the longest time.
Autumn graciously agreed to one final pose. As it turns out, this is one of my favorite pictures from our excursion. I always marvel how she makes nature's beautiful settings even more exquisite by simply merging her spirit and presence within it.
I took a few more photos of the grounds from our distant perspective and then placed my phone in my pocket. It was time to take my friend's hand and thank her for the forever memories that she was responsible for providing.
We took a few more moments to bimble about the grounds, which included a couple buildings and structures in this area, and then paused to rest for a moment and reflect on our day. Little did she know, but I decided on this day that I was going to propose to her in the near future. I could not imagine living a single day without her by my side.
Just as the trip had been her secret, this was to be my secret for now, however. "Two can play at this game," I jubilantly decided.
Upon reflection, I realized our day at the Biltmore Estate began with Autumn and I snapping a picture of the two of us acting childish on the shuttle bus, with me making a silly face for the memory. Our day ended with the two of us spontaneously grabbing each other's hand, sprinting ahead with no forethought or communication between us whatsoever, and jumping high and hard simultaneously into a rain puddle that had formed near the shuttle bus that would, unfortunately, soon bear the responsibility of returning us to reality.
Onlookers looked at us with envious smiles of approval as they witnessed firsthand our true friendship and love for each other.
What I would pay for a photo of that priceless moment in time!
We called Carolina Mornings and was informed that this was, unfortunately, an all-to-common occurrence with cabins in the mountains as trees or their limbs would fall onto power lines. The rental company reported the outage to the power company. We were informed that the power would hopefully be restored by morning, but no guarantee.
The temperature outside was dropping fast as was the temperature inside the cabin. Given we were returning home in the morning and already exhausted from the days activities and sleepy from the overdose of carbs we had consumed, we decided to pack up and head to Starbucks while we held onto hope that we would get a call informing us power was restored at the cabin.
Sadly, that call never came. As Starbucks was about to close we decided to book a room at the Holiday Inn East in Asheville.
Too wired to sleep right away (thank you Starbucks), Autumn and I found an unusual chess board in the lobby of the hotel and decided to play a game. The chessboard was unusual in that it lit up its blue and clear plastic pieces on the board for a visual treat to what would have otherwise been a simple and mundane set.
I wish I could say I was the victor of our game, but . . .
Once Autumn had basked sufficiently in her triumph, we headed to the room where we would soon be reinventing the details of this delightful day in our dreams.
March 26, 2019
The alarm clock woke us early the next morning as a reminder that we still had one last stop to make before leaving Asheville for the return trip home.
As we were leaving the hotel Autumn ran over to give the hotel's wooden Welcome Bear a "bear hug" goodbye. Is it just me, or is the bear frowning?
Hmmm.
Soon we were headed back to the city where we would visit the Basilica of St. Lawrence.
Some things are so predictable. Autumn and her need for a morning cup of java (preferably, she will remind you, a bottomless cup) is one of them.
We stopped by the World Coffee Café and Confectionary, arguably, locals will tell you, the best coffee shop in Asheville.
I managed to sneak out of the shop for a moment to capture Autumn sitting at her window seat skimming the pages of a book she had just purchased at a nearby bookstore as she enjoyed the nectar of the gods.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, since our visit, the café has permanently closed. The COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to small businesses and their owners.
In short time, we were off to the basilica which was only a short drive from the coffee shop.
While there was no Mass to attend the morning we arrived at the Basilica of St. Lawrence, the church was open for visitors to enjoy.
The church was designed and built in 1905 by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino along with his fellow architect R. S. Smith. Pope John Paul II elevated the status of the church to minor basilica in 1993. The basilica is a parish church, located within the Diocese of Charlotte.
The Basilica of St. Lawrence is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the only basilica in western North Carolina. Its dome has a span of 58 x 82 feet and is reputed to be the largest, freestanding, elliptical dome in North America.
The basilica is known for its many elaborate stained glass windows, many of which, we discovered, were made in Munich, Germany.
This window of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, is on the right wall along with other windows portraying her likeness.
There are two chapels, one on each side of the high alter. The first chapel, to the left of the altar, is named Chapel of Our Lady. This chapel contains a Marian altar made of marble, with a statue of the Immaculate Conception adorned by two angels. The second chapel, to the right of the main altar, is the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, originally named the Chapel of St. Joseph.
The basilica includes a rectory for the priest, a Catholic library, and a gift shop for tourists.
The Last Word
Our trek to Asheville is one that we will never forget. Not only was it a wonderful surprise trip arranged entirely by my best friend, it was a trip that fulfilled a long-time dream of mine to visit the Biltmore Estate.
More importantly, it was the beginning of an unlikely love story that will continue to evolve into the unity of two souls destined to be conjoined by God.
Wanderlust Rating: 5 Star
WANDERLUST RATING SCALE:
1 STAR – RECOMMEND YOU CODDIWOMPLE IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
2 STAR – WORTH A LOOKSEE FOR A GADABOUT
3 STAR – A TRUE TROUVAILLE
4 STAR – AN EXCEPTIONAL SOJOURN
5 STAR – A “TWO WANDERLUST SOULS” FAVORITE RECOMMENDATION
