Vacation and Biltmore Estate #2

Because I'm a former librarian, and a voracious reader, the library of Biltmore House was my favorite of all the rooms.  The second floor of the house opens onto the library, as you can see in the photo above.  The shelves on the lower level can be reached with the use of the ladder in the photo below. I have a giant crush on it.  Big sigh . . .

 And this globe, too.  It is huge.

Here's Jem perusing the titles.  There are over 20,000 books in the house but not all are in the library.  We found books in almost every room and in many of the hallways.  The Vanderbilts were evidently avid readers, too. They also provided books as part of the entertainment for the many guests who frequented the estate. I'll tell you about the other diversions they provided in my next post.

This is the stairway leading up to the second floor, which is the family area.  There are other stairways, but none so lavish as this one.  There is also an elevator, which was installed years after the house was opened.

As promised, here a few photos of Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom.  I love yellow walls with white furniture, so this really appealed to me. The accents of black and gold are stunning, right? 

This window looks out over the back lawn, forest and mountains.  What a view to wake up to in the early morning!  Her gorgeous writing desk sits next to the window.  Notice the inlaid wood on the side and the checkerboard pattern on the writing surface. 

 Her dressing table sits close by between the next two windows.

Look at the floors, the rugs, the mirrors, the candelabras, the fireplace, the flowers, the mirrors, the furniture.  The details are extravagant, right?  Absolutely because, as I said in my last post, the Vanderbilts were filthy rich and spared no expense.  Most of the furnishings of the house were imported from Europe.  In a future post, I'll tell you how they made their fortune and about their character.  Not a good story, Gail-Friends.

 And here is Mrs. Vanderbilt's bed.  Nice, but wait till you see his.

In between their bedrooms is a sitting room with a fireplace, a place for dining, and many more books. Notice the ceilings and the carvings in the paneling.  Also the details of the doors.  I noticed most of the furniture is intricately carved.  Victorians were famous for that, and I adore it.  But, can you imagine the dusting the poor servants had to do?  And not just dusting, because all of the wood had to be polished with oil, including the floors and the paneling.   Now the staff does this work, of course, but it is still a lot of work, even with modern machines and cleaning products. 

 There is also a dumb waiter between the two bedrooms.  This was like an elevator and enabled the trays of food and drink to be brought up without walking up the stairs.  Very high-tech for that period.

And here is Mr Vanderbilts bedroom.  Quite kingly, don't you think?  

Notice the fan sitting on the floor.  We visited in mid-October, and the temperatures were in the low to mid-70's.  The fans helped, but it was a bit warm in the house.  Most of the many large windows were open, so it was tolerable.  I can't imagine visiting in mid-summer because it has to be miserable.  The house does not have central air-conditioning or heating.  Heating is done wtih radiators. The house does have bathrooms with toilets, bathtubs, sinks, and running water.

I'll be doing one more post about Biltmore, so stop by next week to see a bit more of the house, the garden, and the grounds.  I'll also show you some of the gift shop in the garden area, which was my favorite of all the shops.  I found a real treasure there.

Blessings to you, Gail-Friends.

****
I sometimes share my posts with these friends: 

Spiritual Sundays     GRAND Social      Modest Mom Monday Link-up      The Art of Homemaking Mondays
   BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS LINK PARTYTitus 2 Tuesday       TITUS TUESDAYS @CORNERSTONE CONFESSIONS    Share Your Cup Wednesday Wordless Wednesdays    Classical Homemaking Link-Up        Favorite Things Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life  Paula's Weekend No Rules Blog Party Friendship Friday