The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1920-05-25
|MILLIONAIRE'S
} [DREAM SMASHES
Model Town of Biltmore, Erected by
George w. Vanderbilt, Sold and
Thus Vanishes Pictures of
Rural Emprier-Commerce
Replaces Utopia.

built by the late George w. Wander
bilt in connection with his magnificent
country estate near Asheville, has
been sold to the Southern railway
and two individual purchasers. So
crumble the dreams of men, says the
Kansas City Star.
How vast scheme Vanderbilt con.
ceived estate, no one will ever know
From 1892 until his death in 1914 he
made it his life's work to block to-
gethes 10000 acres of mountain land,
grub out the forests. plant trees, pipe
water, build roads and level off a
mountain peak for his palatial home
Biltmore house. The project cost him
more than $1OO0O,OOO.
Two years after his death his widow
transferred to the government $4,000
acres of the estate for a nation for
est reserve. Now the model town of
Biltmore of rural empire begins to
disintegrate. Did Vanderbilt dream a
FOOLS paradise on these North Caro-
lima hills He is dead; the dream is
dust and ashes.
On a rainy day 80 years ago, Van
derbilt's private car was on side
track at Asheville waiting to take the
young millionaire back to New York.
After short stay he had become dis
gusted with the wet weather, the sky
line the hotel, with everything. He
was to leave on the morrow. During
the night the skies cleared and the
next morning young Vanderbilt, ris-
ing early, watched a North Carolina
sunrise. j
Standing on the piazza of the Bat
terry Park hotSl he looked away to the
north and saw the peak of the Roam
mountain in Tennessee 60 miles away
Southwark was the grim outline of
| Caesars Head, mountain in south
Carolina so miles away. To the south
west, dim in that blue haze which
gives to this mountain range its name
was the Georgia line, 80 miles away.
To the east, standing bare and bleak,
| and rejecting the suns rays from it's
| snow crowned summit was Mount
Mitchell, the highest peak east of the
Rocky mountains.
Remodeled Mountain.
George Vanderbilt looked again and
watched the sun come up over the
peaks Of the Blue Ridge mountains
until it seemed to set the whole dome
of the sky on fire, coloring every
cloud to bright copper hue and kim
ding the heavens with long shafts of
golden light His bewildered eyes took
in this brilliant scene, and when he
had had his fill of it, he Cancelled the
order for his private car and began to
look around for a homesite.
He came first upon the estate of a
wealthy Southerner and offered to buy
it. The Southerner refused all offers.
Then Vanderbilt searched the country
side until he found the site he want
ed and began to negotiate for the
land. Some he got For SIS an acre;
other tracts cost him much more, for,
when it was learned that Vanderbilt
was buying prices went sky high.
III the center of his holdings was a
high mountain, The peak of this
early pile was not intended to hold
the kind of building George wanted,
sa he set about correcting the error of
nature. He sliced off the top and
added the earth and rock of the re-
moved portion to that which was left,
making broad plateau. On this pla-
teau he built Biltmore house.
And what "house" it was! To say
that it cost more than 100000 and
contained 80 rooms gives only a
sketchy outline of it. 1t was-and is
the finest country mansion in all
America, paradise in the mountains,
a "Chateau Of the Skylarks." 1t stands
upon an esplanade 700x3OO feet, bound
by retaining walls of solid masonry
and crowned by coping of finely
dressed stone. The outside walls of
the palace are 375x192 feet. In archi-
lecture 1T suggests some of the
famous chateaux of the Lorie; yet it
is no .slavish copy. 1t has an indivi-
du~. ~, personality all its>own. 1t
is considered by many to be the
crowning work of Richard M. Hunt,
one of Americas foremost architects.
Under Plate Glass.
Entering the main floor from the
terrace, the visitor is struck by the
beauty of the winter garden. This is
an octagon space, 24x25 feet. it's plate
glass roof supported by IL large curv-
ed ribs. To the west is the salon, 40
feet in length. To the north of the