Today I went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, which is called the largest private house in America. It was built about 1889, in the era before income tax, by George Vanderbilt, grandson of the "Commodore" who made the family fortune. According to the brochure, George was an amateur of art, history and architecture, and the gardens around the estate were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who landscaped Central Park in New York-- there is a portrait of him by John Singer Sargent in the house. I couldn't help wondering if the portraits by Sargent at the Biltmore house had not contributed to his famous weariness of society portrait-painting.
"The house looks like a chateau on the outside, but did you notice how little art there was?" said L as we walked out, exhausted (no air conditioning, and massive crowds of tourists-- no French ones, however). "And all those reproduction Chippendales?"
What I had noticed was the servants' quarters, which were relatively large, high-ceilinged, well-lit, airy and comfortable, and included a fountain, recreation room, showers, modern toilets, and a large servants' dining room. Maybe it was especially hard to get servants to the North Carolina hills, but I couldn't help but contrast these pleasant rooms with the miserable cramped chambres de service built into my apartment building around 1900 and largely unchanged: a warren of tiny rooms of five to ten square meters, each with a door opening to a sinister narrow corridor of doors and an untreated wooden floor, up seven staircases from the back entrance of the building. Even now there is no elevator, although space for one was designed into the building. Instead, the elevator opening has been turned into extra closet space for the proprietaires.
Good for George Vanderbilt, I thought.
I had the opportunity to visit Biltmore about 3 years ago (not on such a hot day as you had) and was also impressed with the estate, and found the "below stairs" more interesting than the fancy rooms above. If you've ever seen the movie Gosford Park, you'd appreciate the big difference between how the family lived and how the servants lived in large estates such as this.
Posted by: The Bold Soul | 27 July 2006 at 17:20
I've been there and loved it. I've heard it is really incredible at Christmas time with candle light tours.
Posted by: Linda | 30 July 2006 at 17:22
Strangely enough, you are the second person today that said they were at the Biltmore recently. It must be the place to go!
Your blog is really interesting - Erin
Posted by: Erin | 02 August 2006 at 03:06