Bitmore Manor is a private manor building in the United States, built from 1889 to 1895, near Ashville, North Carolina. With a building area of 16300 square meters, this building is the largest individual residence in the United States and is regarded as one of the symbols of the gilded age.
From 65438 to 0887, George Van De Burg, a constantly chauffeured man who likes to travel around the world, passed through Ashville, North Carolina. He fell in love with it deeply and decided to build a huge house. In order to build a unique manor, George and architect Richard Hunt traveled in Europe for five months and asked Frederic olmsted, a master landscape designer, to design the garden.
Together with the architect, George organized nearly a thousand masons and craftsmen, selected the best building materials at that time, and built the Bitmore Manor in six years. The manor has houses, gardens and wineries, which has strong architectural characteristics of the French Renaissance.
The main house in the manor is four stories high and leads to the top floor by marble spiral stairs. It uses 1 1 10,000 bricks, and has 65 fireplaces, 43 bathrooms, 34 bedrooms, 3 kitchens, and 250 rooms in all. In addition to ranking first in the number of rooms, it is the first private residence in the United States with an indoor heated swimming pool, indoor bowling, elevator and bathtub.
In 250 rooms, George Van De Burg displayed the rare treasures he collected during his travels around the world: exquisite furniture in various forms came from 13 countries, including more than 600 works by13 from Diu Lei, Sargent and Renoir. The floor is covered with oriental carpets, and English porcelain is on the table.
Guests visiting the manor can live in 32 rooms respectively. There are billiards room, garden and greenhouse, gym, bowling alley and swimming pool in the house. Central heating, refrigerating room, electric lights, electrical appliances, hot water supply, etc. Are the most luxurious in the early 20th century.
George's private library is staggering. It is nearly four stories high and has 23,000 books in various languages. Spiral stairs can be used to take books from upstairs. He once invited an American writer to his home. The author complains that the library is too far from the bedroom and spends a long time reading.
The basement of the main house is mainly gym, swimming pool, kitchen, servant room and storage room. A hall in the basement is decorated with large murals, which are still used to show the architectural history of the mansion.
There used to be 65,438+02,500 acres of forest park near the mansion, but after the death of George, the owner of the manor, he inherited very little. In order to support this mansion, Mrs. Van De Burg was forced to sell her land, and now there are only 8,000 acres left. In the 1930s of the Great Depression, they had to open the door for people to visit in order to make a living.
Today, the manor is still owned by the Vanderbilt family, but it has been opened as a tourist attraction, allowing people to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the manor at close range. Many tourists like the luxurious and tasteful atmosphere of the manor, some couples will hold weddings in the garden, and many movies have used it as a shooting scene.
Now there are new hotels and shops in the manor, all designed and built according to the style of the main building. Every spring, there are 50 thousand tulips in the garden of the manor; Manor Brewery can brew 70,000 cases of fine wines from its own grapes every year, and these wines have won 125 fine wine awards.