Biltmore Estate

George Vanderbilt first visited Asheville in 1888, but it took quite literally no time for him to fall in love with the area. By 1889, he has already pit a community of craftsmen to work to create the 250-room mansion, which, after six years, would finally be completed.

Supposedly, after Vanderbilt died in 1914, his wife, Edith Stuyvesant, was so convinced that she could speak to George's spirit that she sat in front of one the library fireplace (one of sixty-five in the mansion) and did just that. Visitors to the estate today swear that you can hear both of their voices conversing with each other in the library. Additionally, their presences are apparently felt throughout the house, especially in the Billiard and Oak Sitting Room, sometimes even laughing and screaming. In a seemingly random twist, a phantom orange cat without a head has been seen dashing through the Gardens and across Bass Pond.