A visit to Biltmore

Today Paul and I went to visit the Biltmore House (built by George Vanderbilt in 1895).

It is huge, it is the largest house in the U.S. - it has over four acres of floor space, that means I could fit about 100 of my houses into it.  It has 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces.

The grand staircase has a four-story chandelier.  The staircase is spiral and all cantilevered.  The formal dining room's ceiling is 70 ft high.

In the basement is the workout area.  There are change rooms for the men and the women (the servants would bring your clothes down to the rooms for you).  There is a couple of bowling lanes, a swimming pool (10 feet deep), and a gymnasium.  

There is a bachelor's wing with the billiard room, smoking room and gun room.   The library has books from floor to ceiling and the owner was lauded in the papers as being the best read man in America.  

The servants each had their own rooms that were almost as large as my bedroom.  The servants dining room had a dining room maid to serve them their dinner.  The clocks were all synchronized with one clock tower (normally only seen in factory settings).

The grounds were originally 125,000 acres and were gardens and parkland and have American's first managed forest.  It now sits on 8,000 acres.  What was previously the dairy is now the winery and that is 5 miles from the house.  The estate currently has more than 1,700 employees and is  a National Historic Landmark.