4 th grade Lakeshore Elementary

 It is located in Asheville, NC.  The style of architecture is chateau. A chateau is a French style of house. It is sort of like a castle.  The Biltmore was only Mr. Vanderbilt’s summer home.  It was designed to be a self sustaining residence. This means that the family didn’t need to leave the grounds for food, water, etc.

 These slides will introduce you to some of the background information about the Biltmore…

 Vanderbilt was born to a poor family and quit school at the age of 11 to work for his father who was engaged in boating.  When he turned 16 he persuaded his mother to give him $100 loan for a boat to start his first business. He opened a transport and freight service between New York City and Staten Island for eighteen cents a trip.  At the time of his death, aged 82, Cornelius Vanderbilt's fortune was estimated at $100 million. In his will, he left 95% of his $100 million estate to his son William and to William's four sons $5,000,000 to Cornelius Vanderbilt II, and $2 million apiece to William Kissam Vanderbilt, Frederick Vanderbilt, and George Washington Vanderbilt,III.  Mr. Vanderbilt had 12 other children.

 George W. Vanderbilt, youngest son of William Vanderbilt and grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, enjoyed visiting western North Carolina for its mild climate and spectacular scenery.  Born in 1862, young Vanderbilt was educated at local private schools and at home by tutors.  He proved to be an able student with an active, inquiring mind and began to read widely at a very tender age. Around the age of twelve, he began recording each book he read in a series of small notebooks.  George loved to travel. He made many trips to Europe. He loved architecture.  During a visit in the mid-1880s, Vanderbilt was inspired by a view from Downtown Asheville so spectacular that he purchased 125,000 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains for his summer estate.

 The area was still so remote that Vanderbilt had to build a private railway to the site to transport supplies. He also constructed a village complete with a post office and a church to accommodate the laborers and their families.  Selecting a name for his estate, Vanderbilt referenced his family — and the mountains of Western North Carolina. The name “Biltmore” is derived from “Bildt,” a Dutch town with citizens of Vanderbilt ancestry, and “more,” an old English term referring to rolling, mountainous countryside.

 Construction of Biltmore House was under way in 1889; it was a massive undertaking that included a mansion, gardens, farms, and woodlands. George Vanderbilt engaged two of the most distinguished designers of the 19th century: architect Richard Morris Hunt ( ) and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted ( ) An architect is a person that designs buildings.  Hunt modeled the architecture on the richly ornamented style of the French Renaissance and adapted elements, such as the stair tower and the steeply pitched roof, from three famous early-16th-century châteaux. A chateau is sort of like a French castle.

 The main gate… This is what it looks like when you come to the main entrance of the Biltmore Estate.

 The family grew plants indoors during the winter months.

 The Library in Biltmore House holds approximately 10,000 of Vanderbilt's more than 23,000 volumes.

 The Banquet Hall is 72 feet long, 42 feet wide and 70 feet high. It could seat up to 64 guests.

 Most of the cooking was done in the Main Kitchen with additional work done in the Rotisserie and Pastry Kitchens.

 George Vanderbilt's bedroom enjoys spectacular views of the estate in addition to 22k gold leaf on the walls.

 Mrs. Vanderbilt's Bedroom is decorated with sumptuous cut velvet and silk fabrics.

 The room is adorned with velvet and carvings on the ceiling and walls.

 Biltmore does not receive any governmental funding or grants, making it one of the United States' most significant National Historic Landmarks that is preserved solely through private funding.

 ww.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/scavenger/biltmore/co nstruction_01.jpg&imgrefurl= nc.us/schools/scavenger/biltmore/biltmore.htm &usg=__hmq_fC-JDsaoI54ibkFKtyxq1- w=&h=123&w=236&sz=10&hl=en&start=1&um= 1&itbs=1&tbnid=waPM76Qk1W99BM:&tbnh=57 &tbnw=109&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbiltmore% 2Bestate%2Bconstruction%26um%3D1%26hl%3 Den%26client%3Dfirefox- a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en- US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1