If your like me you want to know where it all began, in 1990 I was so youthful and blind, I woke up one Sunday morning and decided Id go find out who George Vanderbilt was........Id been to Biltmore once in 1984 with High School but funny enough Id already been to France before hand and visited GWV and Hunts inspiration Castles for Biltmore: Chenonceau, Chambord, and Blois (since then Ive been back 3 more times)..............but that Sunday I was having an idea for something to write but I needed more info, so I drove the two hours up to Biltmore and sadly so sadly found there was nothing to tell me about George........a trip to the mall and the bookstores gave me little........a few weeks later I found myself in Ashevilles libraries where I found more but not all that much................I started with a notebook, I still have it, in Biltmores guidebook they had that GWV arrived into Asheville for the very first time in 1887. At the library they had several copies of the old Biltmore guidebooks, booklets etc, one from 1989 had that he visited in 1886 the first time, another 1888, and in other history books of the town other dates.................so I took to the newspapers since any news of any Vanderbilt being anywhere was huge Kardashian type propaganda to sell papers...........the Asheville papers had nothing.............searches of the NY numerous newspapers of those years gave me lots of info on GWV, much of it false, but no trip to NC mentioned........however there was the news that NYC was undergoing a blizzard that winter 1887 to 1888.........in the years since no actual date has popped out at me, evidence has mounted, Dr Battle well known for his work on consumptives wrote about the first visit and he became one of GWV closest and longest friends as well as doctor............the general Biltmore story is that GWV and his mother arrived early in 1888 because his mother had taken ill, sometimes its called malaria, sometimes pneumonia, but in fact with them was cousin and close friend Clarence Barker who had consumption..............GWVs diary for this time Im told is in a house in Biltmore Forest, not in Biltmore where his youth diaries are and have been put on display, they no doubt tell the exact date as GWV noted everything..........so what we do know is GWVs agent and would be soon his estate manager of Biltmore came to Asheville in April and bought the first piece of property in his own name so no Vanderbilt name would alarm the people to raise their prices, this worked only a short time and word got out but the land buying had begun and the first parcels are in the very close proximity to where the house is today............Lone Pine Hill, known because there was a lonely single pine tree standing there on the hill/Mtn (and yes there is a photo of that from 1888) became the marker for GWV and where he wanted to build his mansion, not in Newport like the rest, but far away where a good climate for his cousin could be had, and no one wants you to know that...............and by the way today officially they being Biltmore say he arrived 1888, nope right after Christmas 1887
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 02:24:43 +0000
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