Part of Maura Scarmack’s responsibilities as Senior Catering Sales Manager is to help couples find just the right spot to get married on Biltmore. She also assists with related events such as rehearsal dinners and bridesmaids luncheons, and coordinates wedding details with Biltmore’s food and beverage team. Maura travels around the estate frequently as part of her job, so she’s familiar with many of our outdoor locations.

Her favorite place is the Library Terrace. Why? Well, that’s one spot where her wedding day photography was taken—before Maura even worked for Biltmore! She says their favorite photo from that day was taken from the Terrace and hangs in their living room so they can enjoy it every day.

“On a beautiful day, when the wisteria is blooming and the sun is pouring through the leaves, it’s such a magical place,” she said. “The benches are an ideal place to sit and read a book, just as George Vanderbilt may have done more than 100 years ago.  And the views are, not surprisingly, spectacular.”

More recently, a favorite spot has been the Farmyard at Antler Hill Village. Her young daughter adores visiting the animals there, and Maura says she has just as much fun seeing everything through her child’s eyes!

“These trips to the Farmyard will surely be some of our sweetest Biltmore memories for years to come,” she said.

Learn more about our gardens and grounds.

Working in Parking & Transportation for the past three years has provided Julie Tatol with a wide ranging view of the estate, particularly when she leads the Legacy of the Land guided tour which goes into areas not usually open to estate guests.

For Julie, the best view on the entire estate can be found at Lone Pine Hill, the hill that rises in front of Biltmore House which is also known as the Vista . She says this expanse—now lush with hemlocks, pines, and rhododendron—is proof of George Vanderbilt’s environmental vision. Footpaths and horse trails are part of this space along with a romantic venue tucked under the trees.

The summit is crowned with a statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. One of Julie’s favorite views is looking through the space between Diana’s marble arm and tunic.

“It’s like looking through a keyhole into a magical world. The view sweeps down the Vista to this fairytale castle and the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond,” she says.

In summer, Julie says the pergola that shelters Diana drips wisteria blossoms to match the lavender hues on the peaks at dusk. It’s a sunset venue she highly recommends, and one that is easily reached by a trail starting at Parking Lot A. We invite you to take in the view during your next visit!

For Darren Poupore, Chief Curator, trying to select just one thing as his favorite “is like picking your favorite child.”

His job involves researching and interpreting the history of Biltmore, including taking stock of the history of the home’s interiors, the collections, family history, and the history of the estate and land. He is also involved in planning and managing room restorations and development of new tours in Biltmore House.

That level of familiarity only makes it more difficult to identify one item as his personal favorite, but after much thought, he chose the architectural model of Biltmore House.

The model, located on the Fourth Floor in the appropriately-named Architectural Model Room, was commissioned by architect Richard Morris Hunt in 1889. Hunt wanted to show client George Vanderbilt how his home in the North Carolina mountains would appear—a structure inspired by French Renaissance châteaux in the Loire Valley that the two had previously visited.

The detailed model illustrates the steeply pitched roof, dramatic stair tower, and richly ornamented windows and doors that mark Biltmore’s distinctive design.

New York newspapers had speculated about what George Vanderbilt’s home might look like, so it’s not surprising the first public viewing of the model at Hunt’s offices was a media event. “The crowd feasted their eyes on its towers and turrets, its suggestion of magnificent distances and imposing proportions,” according to newspapers of the time.

For years, the model was displayed in Biltmore House’s Basement. In 2005, a large oak cabinet was discovered in storage that perfectly fit the model’s dimensions, indicating that Vanderbilt intended for it to be part of his furnishings. The model and its original base were reunited and moved to its present location, which you can see on the Behind-the-Scenes Rooftop Tour.

So is this an exact model of Biltmore House? For most of us, yes. But not for Darren.

“If you look closely, you can see subtle differences between it and the finished house,” he said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

While Biltmore House is amazing in its scale and beauty, it’s also incredible to notice the amount of detail carried through all parts of the house. Today’s “favorite thing” centers on a small detail that reminds us how George Vanderbilt was so involved in the design of his home.

John Overbey has spent a good bit of time in Biltmore House as part of his security responsibilities. Now supervisor of the Lodge Gate and Admissions Gate, John has worked for more than a decade at Biltmore. Among the grand size and décor of the Banquet Hall, there are two inscriptions that interest him—and that many guests may never even notice!

He is most intrigued by the inscriptions carved into the limestone on the left and right sides of the Organ Loft in the Banquet Hall. 

Family heirlooms are wonderful, even for a Vanderbilt. For Lori Garst, Curatorial Assistant in Museum Services, her favorite thing in Biltmore House originally came from George Vanderbilt’s father.

During her 20 years at Biltmore, Lori has handled and cataloged more than 75 percent of the items in the collection. While she’s discovered many wonderful things over the years, one item holds particular allure.

In the Third Floor Living Hall is a carved library table that George Vanderbilt inherited from his father, William H. Vanderbilt. “I love the richness of the table with its subtle but elaborate carvings, and the fact that it came from William Vanderbilt’s Fifth Avenue home,” she said.

She is equally impressed with its history; the table and several elaborately carved display cabinets in the room were made by Herter Brothers. In the late 1800s, the New York company was one of the country’s leading cabinetmaking and decorating firms. The table and cabinets originally graced the palatial Fifth Avenue mansion William Vanderbilt constructed that spanned the entire block between 51^st and 52^nd streets in New York City. 

In addition to his furnishings, George’s father passed on his love of art and his philanthropic interests to his youngest son. Before William Vanderbilt’s death in 1885, his collection of some 200 works by Old Masters was termed the finest private collection of paintings and sculpture in the world. He provided extensive funding to the YMCA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, and Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Check back next week for another inside look at our favorite things!

Today we share another “insider’s” favorite object that you may have never even noticed. Why not make time for a visit this winter to look at the details in America’s largest home, and check back for the next installment of our favorite things!

After 30 years caring for Biltmore House, there are few details that have escaped Pat Ray’s notice. Pat, Biltmore’s Housekeeping Manager, started in Museum Services before moving to Housekeeping many years ago. One of the major tasks for her department happens every winter: cleaning the magnificent woodwork in the house.

It’s painstaking work when you consider the rich paneling of the Billiard Room and Oak Sitting Room, fanciful carvings and moldings in Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, and heavily carved walnut overmantel in the Library just for starters! But it gives Pat time to appreciate the details in every room—particularly one unusual item in the Salon.

“I’ve just always loved this one table in the Salon; it can be used as a table or as a decorative accent because the top tilts for display. It’s made of papier-mâché with an inlay of mother-of-pearl and it’s so beautiful,” she said.

According to our curators, this table is English and dates to the late 19^th century. While papier-mâché had been around for more than a thousand years, the material was mass produced in the late 1800s. Papier-mâché pieces gained popularity when it was found that the lightweight material could easily be ebonized or “japanned” to resemble the lacquer finishes popular in Asian furniture and decorative accessories of the time.

While you may think of papier-mâché being a product made of layers of paper, the material used in this table and similar pieces was a mixture of wood pulp (mashed paper) and a thickener such as sand and glue; the mixture was then pressed into molds rather than carved.  

These pieces were often adorned with gilding and inlayed with mother-of-pearl, just as the Salon table is. We don’t know what the scene inlaid on the top of the table depicts, but it appears to be some type of ruins surrounded by a variety of different flowers, all created with mother-of-pearl.

As you admire the architecture, art, and sculpture that makes Biltmore House so amazing, consider for a moment all the work that goes into restoring, conserving, and preserving this special place. We checked with one employee who’s deeply involved in maintaining the beauty of Biltmore’s collection for her favorite thing—please check back next week for another insider’s favorite!

Nancy Rosebrock, Chief Conservator, is trained in the conservation of furniture and gilded objects. She came to Biltmore 14 years ago and is the manager of the Conservation and Collections Management staff. 

Her teams are integral parts of the ongoing restoration and preservation work that keeps Biltmore looking like it did when the Vanderbilts called it home. You’ve seen the results of their incredible work in every part of Biltmore House, from the Louis XV Room with its gilded mirror and sconces to the exhibition in the Second Floor Living Hall focusing on our preservation efforts.

With Nancy’s attention to detail, it’s not surprising that her favorite objects are a pair of bronze candelabra in the Oak Sitting Room that tell a story—if you stop to look at them with a careful eye. “They are a study of the precariousness of life,” she said. 

Created by sculptor Auguste Nicholas Cain, the bronze pieces skillfully portray animals; the base is formed from snails, complete with tiny bronze antennae. On one candelabrum, a mother bird is feeding her babies. On the other, a rat balances on a limb above a nest, about to take the baby birds for its next meal.

The candelabra are part of Biltmore’s collection of bronzes created by les Animaliers, a 19^th-century French school of art named for the artists’ naturalistic portrayals of animals. George Vanderbilt acquired about 20 works from les Animaliers, including the striking Hippogriff in the Entrance Hall by Antoine-Louise Barye.

Sometimes it’s the smallest detail that makes an object stand out in your mind. That’s the case with this week’s favorite thing for a member of Biltmore’s Museum Services staff. We invite you to visit soon to admire the details in Biltmore House and discover your own personal favorites!

Laura Cope Overbey, Collections Manager in Museum Services, joined Biltmore 14 years ago as the Associate Collections Manager and has been in her current position since 2008. Her job gives her a close look at items in the collection. Among the thousands of objects she has seen, two prints stand out for a special reason—even if most guests never even notice them.

“Mr. Vanderbilt collected more than 1,300 prints that are in our collection today,” Laura said. “My favorites are two prints of Charles II hanging on the west wall in Mr. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom.”

According to Laura, the prints appear to be identical and are by the same artists, 17^th-century Dutch painter Pieter Nason and Dutch printmaker Cornelis van Dalen II. Both date from the early 1660s and depict Charles II in the same stance, outfit, and background.

Yet, there is a slight difference between the two prints; one has the addition of three small objects in the bottom left corner—a crown, orb, and scepter. And those objects tell a fascinating story about the life of the English king.

“If you look carefully, you can see clues to the historical significance of the two prints,” Laura said. “At the beginning of his reign, Charles II was a king without a country. During his youth, he had witnessed the English Civil War, the end of the English monarchy, and the execution of his father, Charles I. Since his father’s death, Charles II was a king in exile.

“In 1660, the political tide changed and the English wanted to reinstate the monarchy. These prints illustrate this transition: the first shows a king without a country, and the second shows a king fully restored with the crown and country,” she said.

Left photo: Charles II without a country. Right photo: Charles II with his crown, orb, and scepter.