Continuing our meandering vacation, my family stopped at the Biltmore Estate nestled in the mountains near Asheville, NC.
Biltmore House is a French Renaissance-inspired chateau near Asheville, North Carolina, built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the United States, at 175,000 square feet. Still owned by Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age. (wikipedia)The whole experience is overwhelmed by a condescending commercialism. The estate is currently owned by a private corporation, not a trust or non-profit of any kind. Admission is 45$, more than twice the price of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and contains half the culture. There is a point along the unguided tour at which you must stop and have your photo taken where you can pick it up later for fee a la Disney World attractions. After finishing our tour of the house, we wandered outside near the stables which have been converted to series of elaborate giftshops which boast memorabilia printed with "Biltmore House, largest house in America (tm)." If I'm ever wealthy enough to build a larger home and do so, I'm going to sue them over their trademark. And last but not least, Lowe's is the official home improvement store of Biltmore Estates.
What a lovely little diddy of American commercialism's overreach.
2 comments:
Some data:
Estate guests spend an average of $148 while they're here, the study shows. The Biltmore Co. paid $11.5 million in taxes last fiscal year.
You said "if I am ever rich enough", should have said, "when I am rich enough".
I hope, even then, you would not build such a structure.
If you do, please reserve a room for me on the ground floor.
CHAS
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