The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-05-07
GEORGE VANDERBILT'S DREAM
Vanishes With the Sale of the Model
Town of Biitmore.

j derbilt in connection with his magni-
fcent country estate near Ashevllle,
has been sold to the Southern Rail-
way and two individual purchasers.
On the site chosen by Mr.. Wander
bilt for an adventure in Utopia, the
railway company will build a two
million dollar passenger station. So
crumble the dreams of men.
How vast scheme Vanderbilt
conceived for developing his North
Carolina estate, no one will ever
know. From 1892 until his death in
1914, he made it his life's work to
block together 10000 acres of noun
tain land, grub out the forests, plant
trees, pipe water, build roads and
level of a mountain peak for his
palatial home, Biltmore house. The
project cost him more than ten mil
lion dollars, 80: :, -.
Two years after: his; death his
widow transferred to the government
fifty thousand acres of the estate for
a national forest reserve. Now the
model town of Biltmore is seld,. and
the millionaire's plan of rural en-
pire begins to disintegrate: Did
Vanderbilt dream fools paradise on
those North Carolina hills? He is
dead; the dream is dust and ashes.
On a rainy day thirty years ago,
Vanderbilt's private car was on a
side track at Asheville waiting to
take the young millionaire back to
New York. After a short stay he
had become disgusted with the wealth
er, the skyline, the hotel, with
everything. He was to leave on the
morrow. During the night the skies
cleared and the next morning young
Vanderbilt, rising early, watched a
/; North Carolina sunrise.
Standing on the piazza of the Bat
terry Park hotel he looked away to
the north and saw the peak of the
Roam mountain in Tennessee, sixty
miles away. Southwark was the grim
outline of Caesars Head, mountain
in South Carolina, fifty miles away.
To the southwest, dim in that blue
haze which gives to this mountain it's
name, was the Georgia line, ninety
miles away. To the east, standing
bare and bleak, and refecting the
SUMS rays from it's snow crowned
summit, was Mount Mitchell, the
highest peak 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 a bright copper hue and
kindling t. 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 be-
gan to look around for home site.
He first came upon the estate Of a
wealthy Southerner and offered to
buy it. The Southerner refused all
offers. Then Vanderbilt searched
the countryside until he found the
site he wanted and began to negotiate
for the land. Some he got for five
hundred dollars an acre; other tracts
cost him much more, for, when it was
learned that Vanderbilt was buying
prices went sky high.
In the center of his holdings was
high mountain. The peak of this
earthly pile was not intended to hold
the kind of building George wanted.
So he set about correcting the error
of Nature. He slicedr off the top
and added the earth and rock of the
removed portions to that which was
left, making broad plateau. On this
plateau he built Biltmore house:
And what a ''house" it was! To
say that it cost more than two mil
lion dollars and contained ninety
rooms, gives only a sketchy outline
of it. It was-and is-the finest
country mansion in all America,
paradise in the mountains, "Chateau
of. the Skylarks." 1t stands upon an
esplanade 700x300 feet, bound b re-
tanning walls of solid masonry and
crowned by coping of finely dressed
stone. The outside walls of the
palace are 375x192 feet. In archi-
lecture it suggests some of the fam
Gus chateaux of the Loire; yet it is
no lavish copy. 1t has an individ-