New Rooms. New Stories.
We uncovered more than wallpaper and woodwork while researching and restoring four of Biltmore's most grand guest rooms. We found stories about the people who lived in, worked in, and loved America's largest home.
The Heart of the House
Of the four grand guest rooms unveiled this spring, the Louis XV room could be considered the heart of the home. Though the room is stylistically stunning, its prime importance for Biltmore is its relation to the Vanderbilt family's history. George and Edith Vanderbilt's only daughter, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born in the Louis XV Room on August 22, 1900. We do not know for sure why the Louis XV Room was selected for this special use, but it was certainly typical during the 19th century for birthing to take place in a separate area than the mother's personal bedroom. Given the grand views of the Esplanade and Italian Garden and a semblance of outdoor access via the balcony, the LXV room seems a very good choice for what could have been weeks of convalescence.
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN
ASHEVILLE, N.C., THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1900
STORK COMES TO BILTMORE
To Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt a Child is Born
BILTMORE'S HEIRESS
Buncombe Folk Join in the Congratulations
THE LITTLE ONE TO BEAR THE
NAME CORNELIA STUYVESANT
VANDERBILT-MOTHER AND
BABE DOING WELL
The advent of a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt was announced last evening from Biltmore House, and the congratulations of northern kindred and friends to the happy parents have similar sentiment in Buncombe. The little stranger is a Buncombe baby - pretty as babies go - but with the Buncombe birthright of the mountain health its days of babyhood will dot in dimpled sweetness and the fairy lines of beauty blend in a vision fitting to its home on the grand estate. The storks were kind in the time of their arrival to all concerned but the newspaper men. How the news was gathered and sent has a story with a smiling side to those who came in early possession, but some of the fraternity were asleep and for those there is no smile. News of the event was given out soon after midnight and hurry calls were made upon the wires for confirmation of the story. Replies were briefly satisfactory - the baby was here, a girl, and happy results were with the mother and her daughter. Cornelia Stuyvesant is the baby's name - ancestral in its derivation from the immediate families of father and mother. Dr. S. Westray Battle was in attendance upon the accouchement.
A Tradition Continues
The Louis XV room itself became significant enough in their family history that Cornelia also chose to give birth to her two sons in this special space. George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil were born in the LXV Room in 1925 and 1928, respectively.
Mr. and Mrs. John F. A. Cecil Are Now the Proud Parents Of a Fine, Healthy Baby Boy
NC – Asheville – Biography – Cecil, George H.V.
February 27, 1925
In the Louis Quinze room where his mother was born and amid the lusty plaudits of the tenantry of the Biltmore Estate, carrying on the traditions of the typically English manor created in these rocky fastnesses by his late grandfather, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, first-born of Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Cecil, daughter of the house, was ushered into the world at 4:23 o'clock yesterday morning.
That the three most important events of Biltmore House, the birth of the heiress, August 23, 1900; her marriage, April 28, 1924, and the birth of her son, February 27, 1925, should have happened in the shadow of Pisgah is in keeping with the tremendous hold these shrouded hills exerted on George W. Vanderbilt and, after him, on his daughter.