Just in time for Greg’s now-full work schedule and the promise of wintry weather, Ruby has found a driveway worthy of her worn tread. It’s in South Asheville, just two miles south of the Biltmore Estate, where I will spend most of my winter delivering food to, and cleaning up after, wealthy vacationers at the closest restaurant to America’s biggest house. I say that not out of pride, necessarily, as the concept of one of America’s truly most beautiful patches of land being held privately, with public use only granted for great profit, makes me slightly squeamish.
But I can’t say that I haven’t been swept up in the enthusiasm of working for such a well-regarded, successful, and if nothing else, a family company with integrity.
A few interesting points about the family and estate, based on my initial perspective:
George Washington Vanderbilt sculpted the home and estate through his architect, Richard Morris Hunt, and his landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted is responsible for beauties like NYC’s Central Park, Stanford University, and most notably to me, Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. Wandering around the Estate, the paths and landscaping have a definite resemblance to my hometown’s famous private gardens.
GW Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built the family fortune on shipping in NYC and railroads. GW bought the then 125,000 acre estate at 26 years old. That’s my age. What I would do with 125,000 acres right now…. I have to say, Vanderbilt and I would probably do it a little differently. But that was a different time, and he was familiar with endless mountains of finance to which there was no end.
It is said, in Biltmore introductory videos, and by the current CEO, GW’s great-grandson, referred to as Bill Jr., that GW wanted the estate land in part to prove to America that sustainable agriculture was possible. At the time, the estate land, probably like many lands at that time, was stripped and scarred, having been mono-cultured and unsustainably clear-cut for centuries. GW had the money and resources to help make the land valuable again, at least in some way. Because of the state of the land, Olmsted recommended they re-forest much of the land rather than turn it in to farmland because of the poor state of the soil. That led to the start of the first Forestry School in America, which now is remembered on land GW’s widow later sold to what would become the US Forest Service’s Pisgah National Forest.
It’s interesting to me, though, that the primary garden on the estate today, closest to the house, is an ornamental one because GW wanted it that way instead of how Olmsted envisioned it, as a practical kitchen garden filled with herbs and vegetables.
The Estate, as I don’t doubt it was back then, still claims to be self-sustainable, even though only 20 percent of its profits comes from agriculture-related industry. (The rest comes from tourism, easy to understand considering the “Christmas season” special dinner service at my new place of work, the Stable Cafe next to the “Big House” serves plates starting at $30 per, not to mention the multitude of gift shops, the popular winery, and many other restaurants on the property.) The restaurants, at least mine, are most certainly not self-sustainable, that is to say they get food from off the estate, so I do wonder what it is that allows them to make that claim.
Nonetheless, I value that apparent priority. Bill Jr. certainly seems to be making strides in the right direction, even if the company was more focused on hospitality and profit in the past. He is currently experimenting with using estate-grown canola for fuel in estate vehicles, and has one of, if not the, largest private solar fields in the area. I’m looking forward to learning more.
So I am happy to work for a family that seems to be doing at least something to contribute to solving a world issue and treats its employees so well. Maybe I’m just drinking the Kool-aid, but for now, Biltmore is the place to be.
Now time to go clean off some tables, so more people can spend their money here.
the cabaret 