Images of America, Biltmore Estate

If you had over $4 billion dollars and 125,000 acres, what would you do with it?

George Vanderbilt, the grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt "The Commodore", knew what he wanted to do. His father, William Henry Vanderbilt left a legacy of over $200 million dollars in 1885 when he died which is the equivalent of $4 billion today. In the 1890's George began buying land outside of Asheville, NC, that soon amounted to over 125,000 acres and expanded into 3 counties. There, he built the largest privately owned home in America called "Biltmore."

I have visited the estate on a few occasions and I'm always fascinated by the house and the Vanderbilt family's way of life. Having lived in the greater Nashville area for the last decade, I've also adopted Vanderbilt University as my SEC favorite. Combining these two interests, I'm making it a point to learn more about the Vanderbilt family. I've started with something light.

Ellen Erwin Rickman's Biltmore Estate (Images of America: North Carolina) was a fun book. Full of old pictures, each caption gave a wonderful history and glimpse of the Vanderbilt family, their values and the culture they created. It also gave good insight on the construction of the Biltmore Estate and how it took a village to run the place. The only thing it was lacking were modern day images for comparison.

If you want to learn some history and prefer books with pictures...this is it.