Visiting Biltmore House

Our home school is officially on vacation for the end of Advent through the first of the new year! Now we will start enjoying a few Christmastime events and the hustle and bustle of final preparations before the Nativity of Our Lord.

On Thursday, we joined friends on their planned seasonal day trip to Biltmore House (which seems to be 'how one says it', what would I know?). We had never gone before because of the steep entry price, but now we've purchased annual passes in hopes of taking advantage of having this beautiful, historic spot near enough to our home to be seen on a day trip. Our lovely friends have figured this out: You see, they have eight children and can you imagine the cost to take eight children just about anywhere interesting, let alone somewhere like Biltmore? Well, it turns out that when you buy annual passes, children sixteen and under are free, and when you then go three or four times per year (because you never run out of seeing new things at a place like this), we call that in family economics getting your money's worth!

No photographs are permitted inside of the home which consists of something like 250 rooms and 178,000 square feet, but you'll believe me that the interior is so beautiful. In fact, it was designed with such care for creating intimate spaces that it felt to me like a home one could live in, despite the astonishing wealth (e.g., 'note the walls painted in 22 carat gold').

Grampa and the family in front of Biltmore House

Grampa Neil arrived a couple of days ago and will be with us through Christmas!


I must say that touring the house and hearing the story of the family reminded me in a sobering way of the parable of the rich fool:

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

I cast no particular aspersions on George Washington Vanderbilt--as I know nothing about his faith and we see in many of his actions great kindness--but kept thinking of how one had better put one's energy and treasure in the right place because one knows neither the hour of the day (Matt. 24:36). In this case, Mr. Vanderbilt (the grandson who had inherited a small portion of his grandfather's shipping fortune) built this home of almost incomprehensible monetary treasure, the process alone which took six years, for his mother . . . who died within a couple of years of the home's completion. Then Mr. Vanderbilt married a seemingly lovely lady with whom he had one daughter. He died only nine years after completing the house, even fewer years into his marriage. His lone daughter ended up seeming to abandon the Biltmore name and preservation of the estate, as well as her husband and children.

While there may be no objective sin in building an expensive home--and, in fact, it may be meritorious to preserve a culture's beautiful craftsmanship and artwork--I am certainly sobered and remind myself:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." (Matthew 6:21)

We ate lunch at the restaurant in the former stables of Biltmore House, finished our tour of the home, and then drove the few miles (on the property) to The Village, of modern construct where one can go to a winery, a brewery, a farm and petting zoo, a playground and children's maze, restaurants and an ice cream shop, a museum, and more.

Petting chickens at the farm

We had just scratched the surface of things to see and experience after being there more than six hours when it was time for us to take these tired children home. We have much reason to return! The two-and-a-half-hour drive home was a little rough because of an overwrought baby and two-year-old who wouldn't just fall asleep, but we made it!