Remodeling America’s
Fines! Castle
Somo unprecedented changes await
visitors to the famed Vanderbilt man¬
sion in Asheville.
By R. B. SATTERWIIITE
The famous Biltmore House at
Asheville has a new look this season.
A long unfinished room at the 250-
room French Renaissance chateau is
being completed as a bicentennial
project.
It is the first major remodeling
project at the mansion since George
Washington Vanderbilt built “the finest
private residence in America” between
1890 and 1895.
William A. V. Cecil-, Vanderbilt’s
grandson and a co-owner of the house,
decided to complete the room in the
summer of 1974.
“This was not a decision to be taken
lightly,” Cecil said. “Not until now has
it been economically feasible to under¬
take such a major project.”
The Pisgah Room
Cecil, co-owner of the house with his
brother, George, operates the house as
a tourist attraction. It has been open to
the public since 1930, except for about
three years during World War II, and
has become one of the state’s top tour¬
ist attractions. Last year, 285,000 peo¬
ple visited the house and its gardens;
Cecil expects 320,000 this season.
What started as one project ended
up with about 80 per cent of the grand,
old mansion’s rooms being rearranged
and new areas opened to the public.
The new room, which has been
named the Pisgah Room because of
its view of Mount Pisgah, is scheduled
to be completed by the middle of May.
Visitors, now, however, can view the
work in progress through specially in¬
stalled glass windows.
It is believed that when Vanderbilt
started the 250-room mansion in 1890,
he intended the room to be a music
room. Why he never completed it is
conjecture today.
Architect Alan Burnham, director of
the New York Landmark Preservation
Commission, who was commissioned
by Cecil to design the room, believes
it wasn’t completed because Vanderbilt
ran short of funds. It is said that Van¬
One of a pair of Cardinal Richelieu's "furnish¬
ings" that are on display in the Biltmore House.
The design is gold on deep red velvet.
derbilt, still in his 20s at the time,
spent about $5 million to build the
house and that it cost him a million
dollars a year for upkeep.
No Music Fan
Burnham, too, believes the room
was intended as a music room. His
opinion is backed by the documents
of the original architect of the house,
Richard Morris Hunt, founder of the
American Institute of Architects.
Although Vanderbilt roamed the
world collecting antiques and art trea¬
sures to put in his mansion, Burnham
says he was never overly fond of music.
His lack of enthusiasm in this field may
have been a reason the music room was
never completed.
Cecil, too, has his ideas about the
room. It was his grandfather’s custom,
he said, to seek out a room in one of
Europe’s fine houses, buy it intact and
have it shipped to Asheville. Since this
would have required the collaboration
of his architect, his plan may have been
thwarted by Hunt’s death.
“It’s a pure guess, but I believe he
Front view of the Biltmore House, a French
Renaissance chateau built in Asheville by
George W. Vanderbilt in the 1890's. The 250-
room mansion is the largest private residence in
the United States. Now one of North Carolina's
top tourist attractions, Biltmore expects 320,000
visitors this season.
THE STATE, May 1975
