BILTMORE ESTATE Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service______National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
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NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BILTMORE ESTATE Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service_________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 1. NAME OF PROPERTY Historic Name: Biltmore Estate (Additional Documentation and Boundary Reduction) Other Name/Site Number: N/A 2. LOCATION Street & Number: Generally bounded by the Swannanoa River on the north, the Not for publication: N/A paths of NC 191 and 1-26 on the west, the paths of the 1-25 and the Blue Ridge Parkway on the south, and a shared border with numerous property owners on the east; One Biltmore Plaza. City/Town: Asheville Vicinity: JC State: NC County: Buncombe Code: 021 Zip Code: 28801 3. CLASSIFICATION Ownership of Property Category of Property Private: X Building(s): __ Public-Local: _ District: X Public-State: _ Site: __ Public-Federal: Structure: __ Object: __ Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing 56 buildings 57 buildings 31 sites 25 sites 51 structures 30 structures _0_ objects 0 objects 138 Total 112 Total Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National Register: All Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: N/A NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BILTMORE ESTATE Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this __ nomination __ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property __ meets __ does not meet the National Register Criteria. Signature of Certifying Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau In my opinion, the property __ meets __ does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau 5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this property is: Entered in the National Register Determined eligible for the National Register Determined not eligible for the National Register Removed from the National Register Other (explain): Signature of Keeper Date of Action NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BILTMORE ESTATE Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 6. FUNCTION OR USE Historic: Category. Subcategory: DOMESTIC Single dwelling DOMESTIC Secondary structure COMMERCE/TRADE Office building RECREATION AND CULTURE Museum RECREATION AND CULTURE Work of art AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Processing AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Storage AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Agricultural AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Animal facility AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Fishing facility/site AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Horticultural facility AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Agricultural outbuilding AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Irrigation facility INDUSTRY/PROCESSING/EXTRACTION Waterworks LANDSCAPE Garden LANDSCAPE Forest LANDSCAPE Natural feature Current: Category Subcategory DOMESTIC Single dwelling DOMESTIC Secondary structure DOMESTIC Hotel COMMERCE/TRADE Office building COMMERCE/TRADE Department store COMMERCE TRADE Restaurant COMMERCE/TRADE Warehouse RECREATION AND CULTURE Museum RECREATION AND CULTURE Work of art AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Processing AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Storage AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Agricultural AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Animal facility AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Horticultural facility AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Agricultural outbuilding AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE Irrigation facility INDUSTRY/PROCESSING/EXTRACTION Waterworks LANDSCAPE Parking lot LANDSCAPE Garden LANDSCAPE Forest LANDSCAPE Natural feature NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BILTMORE ESTATE Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 7. DESCRIPTION Architectural Classification: Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals French Renaissance Colonial Revival Late Victorian Shingle Style Other: Manorial Style Mixed No style Materials: Foundation: Brick Stone Walls: Wood/weatherboard Wood/shingle Brick Stone Stone/granite Stone/limestone Stucco Concrete Roof: Wood/wood shingles Metal Terra Cotta Asphalt Concrete Synthetics Stone/slate Other: Wood Brick Stone Metal/cast iron Metal/copper Terra cotta NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BILTMORE ESTATE Page 5 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service_________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance. INTRODUCTION Biltmore Estate is the residual holding that comprises the core home estate of the vast Gilded Age establishment created by George Washington Vanderbilt between 1888 and ca. 1902 and held by his grandson and two of his great-grandchildren to the present. The acreage within the revised National Historic Landmark boundary includes 3,758 acres held by The Biltmore Company (William A.V. Cecil) in two tracts flanking the path of Interstate 40, which crosses the north edge of the estate, together with the 124.48 acres comprising its path and rights of way, and 3,067 acres on the west side of the French Broad River held by West Range, LLC (William A.V. Cecil Jr. and Diana Cecil Pickering). The total acreage is 6,949.48 acres. The estate is located in southwest Asheville and lies astride the S-shaped course of the French Broad River, which flows to the north and is joined by the Swannanoa River at the northernmost point on the estate. The present boundary of the estate was created in 1979 when George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil, the two grandsons of George Washington Vanderbilt, divided the ancestral estate. This division occurred sixteen years after the estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. By choice William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil retained the core 6,825-acre tract; his brother George received the remainder of the adjoining estate lands, comprising some 5,000 acres of fields and woodlands, principally on the south side of the estate. In 1993 The Biltmore Company conveyed the estate's west side lands of 3,067 acres to Mr. Cecil Jr. and his sister Mrs. Pickering. Except for a small 1920s log cottage erected for an estate employee and some minor traces of the path of the arboretum road, a project which failed and was abandoned by the turn of the twentieth century, all of the significant built historic resources, forest plantations, and landscape features associated with Biltmore Estate during its period of significance, 1888 to 1950, are located on this holding. A comparison of the "Guide Map of Biltmore Estate," prepared in 1896 by Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot, with the map of the estate prepared for this study, indicates the very real extent to which this residual holding reflects the home estate as it existed in 1896. After the guide map was prepared Mr. Vanderbilt acquired additional lands on the west side of his holding, which are included herein, and other real estate on the east side of the estate, as well as other adjoining and outlying tracts. Biltmore Estate, today, is bounded by a series of natural and man-made property lines, and comprises two physically separate tracts. The smallest of these is the Biltmore Village lot on which the Estate Office (#2) stands. Sold in 1924 with the surrounding village, it was re-acquired in 1977. The principal tract comprising the residual acreage of Biltmore Estate is bounded on the north by a property line in the middle of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, on the east by the common boundary between Biltmore Forest and Biltmore Estate, on the south by the path of the Blue Ridge Parkway, on the southwest by the path of Interstate 26, on the west by the path of NC 191 (Brevard Road), and on the northwest by the property line between the estate and the acreage conveyed to the State of North Carolina for the Western North Carolina Farmers' Market, another property owner, and a line carrying in the middle of the French Broad River. The gently rolling acreage of the estate, with splendid views through and into the surrounding mountainous landscape is bisected by the S-shaped course of the French Broad River. Approximately 3,758 acres lie on the east side of the French Broad River, and about half of this acreage comprises the portion of Biltmore Estate's grounds, gardens, roadways, fields, and woodlands open to view to paying guests. The 3,067 acres on the west side of the French Broad River is entirely private. Beginning with Mr. Vanderbilt's ownership and into the 1980s, estate-operated ferries linked the two sides of the estate; however, with the end of dairying on the property the ferry ceased operation. The west side is served by two entrances off Brevard Road. About two- thirds (4,449 acres) of the residual estate is covered by woodland (including both forest plantations and natural NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018