In The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home, Denise Kiernan once again acts as an entertaining and knowledgeable docent as she tells the story of the Biltmore House, delving into the lives of George and Edith Vanderbilt, their triumphs and tragedies, their devotion to the land and the people associated with Biltmore, and their struggles to keep the Biltmore enterprise financially afloat.
There are several reasons for readers to join Kiernan on her exploration of this Asheville landmark. First on the list are Kiernan’s style and her skill as a narrative historian. She portrays the Vanderbilts with the same sure touch employed in her descriptions of what remains America’s largest privately owned home. She acquaints us with the men who designed the house and grounds: landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, architect Richard Morris, and architect and master craftsman Rafael Guastavino. She explores, sometimes briefly, sometimes at length, not only the people who helped raise this mansion, but other public figures who knew the Vanderbilts or had links to Asheville, among them Theodore Roosevelt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Included as well are thumbnail sketches of other historic buildings in Asheville like the Grove Park Inn, the Grove Arcade, and All Souls Episcopal Church, now known as the Cathedral of All Souls.
We learn of the many regional projects launched by George and Edith Vanderbilt; their support—financial and otherwise—for such endeavors as a the establishment of America’s first school of forestry, various clubs and schools for young people, workshops and businesses promoting local crafts, and the Young Men’s Institution, an organization for Asheville’s black population offering “education and recreational programs, community resources, lectures, concerts, and more.”
Kiernan has a wonderful eye for detail and frequently provides amusing anecdotes. After George Vanderbilt decided to name the estate and the small nearby railroad station Biltmore, one citizen in March of 1890 wrote to the local paper: “Next we shall have a Biltmore hotel, Biltmore park, Biltmore block, Biltmore sheep, cows, ducks, cloth, and (last as usual) the Biltmore bustle.”
This unnamed writer wins the award for prognostication, as more than 100 businesses in Buncombe County now bear the name “Biltmore.” As Kiernan points out, the name also found favor outside of North Carolina, so that today hotels, resorts, and condos across the United States call themselves Biltmore, a word that “now connotes glamour and wealth.”
For bibliophiles, Kiernan offers a tour of the Biltmore Library—“As a writer, I am absolutely in love with the library”—and provides many observations about George’s lifelong fascination with literature.
“At a young age,” Kiernan tells us, “George Vanderbilt began to keep a series of notebooks titled “Books I Have Read” in which he recorded all the literary and academic texts that he consumed,” and she gives us a sampling of those titles. We also meet two of George’s close friends who were equally interested in books: sportsman and engineer William Field and novelist and historian Paul Leicester Ford.
The Last Castle also makes us more familiar with Edith Vanderbilt. In a brief interview at the end of the book, Kiernan relates: “I, personally, find the philanthropic activities—not just the check writing—that Edith, especially, engaged in rather inspiring.” Throughout the book we are reminded time and again of Edith’s generosity in helping the poor and the sick, and of her efforts to preserve the estate after George’s untimely death in 1914 from a myocardial infarction following an appendectomy. To her goes a hefty amount of the credit for keeping the Biltmore House an ongoing enterprise.
We also see that George and Edith’s generous treatment of their employees created a bond of loyalty among the Biltmore staff that remains to this day. In addition to helping employees and their families, the Vanderbilts distributed gifts at Christmas, took an interest in education for the children of their workers, and invited them to their daughter Cornelia’s wedding.
Finally, The Last Castle offers readers an extensive index, and a reading guide for book clubs. All of these additions enhance this story of the Biltmore House.
In 1930, Biltmore opened its doors to paying visitors. Not until 1968 did this enterprise show a profit: $16.32. Today Biltmore employs more than 2,400 people, sees over a million visitors every year, operates vineyards and sells wine, and hosts a variety of accommodations and amusements for its visitors. In 2016, the total economic impact of the Biltmore Estate on the Asheville area came to $583.2 million, with the Biltmore Company paying $86.2 million in federal, state, and local taxes.
As Kiernan shows us, George Vanderbilt’s quixotic vision of erecting a French-style chateau in these mountains and Edith’s determination to maintain Biltmore as a memorial to her husband turned out to be the greatest of their gifts to Western North Carolina.