A Grand Home and Heritage: Principles from the Biltmore Estate
Jessica and I joined 1,200 other saints in Asheville, North Carolina last week for the annual Church and Family Life conference. The days of teaching and reflection were wonderfully valuable. Given the ages of our children, we had not been away as a couple for more than a night for about five years. We took advantage of these few days together to extend our trip by a day and visit a place unlike any we had ever seen.
The Biltmore Estate is situated in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. The Gilded Age home is nearly 180,000 square feet and rests within a property that was, at its largest, 125,000 acres. This place is, in every way, unbelievably massive.
As our day of touring and wandering the grounds came to a close, I came to the conclusion that much about the Biltmore and the ethos behind it was not just impressive, but objectively good. There is no other home in the nation that matches the Biltmore in terms of size (literally none), but each and every home can and must strive to match the goodness of the Biltmore. What follows are a few qualities exemplified by this grand estate that are worth cultivating in our lives right now - regardless of the acreage we do or do not own.
PIETY
George Vanderbilt constructed his home with a message in mind and on display. This mansion was no monument to secularism or a mere celebration of what man can achieve. Christianity fills rooms and adorns halls at the Biltmore. In the largest room in the home, the banquet hall, a Latin inscription is carved into the stone walls above the entrance for all to see. The words translate into “Give peace, O Lord, in these days.” Heading to the library, three massive tapestries fill a hallway. They tell the story of the Bible and promote the unchanging virtues of Christianity.
Vanderbilt was, according to the curators, a committed Episcopalian (back when Episcopalians took the Bible seriously). His worldview bleeds through the details of the Biltmore. Walking through the home, we saw what the man was committed to cultivating. Education, music, gardening - these are all natural overflows of the Christian faith. The servants were granted Sundays off so they could attend church and worship God.
I don’t have a banquet hall, but I do have a dining room. Am I promoting Christian piety, not just in the recesses of my heart, but out loud for all who come through my doors? Have my children come to expect me to lead them in study of Scripture and prayer to God? Does my family understand that all we prioritize is in no way arbitrary but comes from our fundamental beliefs about God and his world?
HIERARCHY
God’s world is full of hierarchy. Structure, authority, and accountability are unavoidable and good. Without hierarchy, we entertain chaos, and our God is one of order.
The Biltmore could not have functioned the way it did without embracing hierarchy. There is no way. Everything on that estate fit into a grand workflow. Everyone did their part, in the right order, with respect to the proper authority over them. George Vanderbilt was the master. What he said was unshakeable rule on the estate. Flowing down from him, there were housekeepers of various rank, footmen, ladies’ maids, cooks, stable hands, blacksmiths, farmers, dairy operators and managers, and on and on.
Some had immense responsibilities. Others had very narrow domains to manage. All had a part to play, and it all mattered.
What about in your household? Are you able to answer questions like these:
Who is in charge? What does that mean? What are each person’s responsibilities? What is expected of the oldest child? The youngest child? How are dad and mom different? How are decisions made? What needs to get done on a daily basis and who will do it? Who speaks for the family?
Do you embrace a biblical hierarchy in your household, or does your family function like a free-for-all?
PRODUCTIVITY
To say that the Biltmore was productive is a vast understatement. The house provided employment for a high number of people, and that is just the start.
The estate carried out a number of needed, economic endeavors. The farming fed countless people in the area and region. The dairy was prolific and produced coveted foods considered to be top-tier. The beef that were raised went to market regularly. Timber was (and is still) harvested and sold from the grounds. The Biltmore was not just nice to look at. It produced.
None of us will produce in a way that even compares with the Biltmore, and that is ok. I am talking about principles here. The question we should be asking ought to go something like this: “What has the Lord given me, and how can I best use it to be productive in a godly way?” Remember, God didn’t make us to sit on our hands and enjoy the sunsets. He made us so that we could keep creating. This may be as simple as a loaf of bread, a dozen fresh eggs, or a fruitful garden.
ELEGANCE AND EXCELLENCE
Something can be huge, but not elegant. I think of the Hoover Dam, for example. The Biltmore, enormous in size, maintains elegance throughout. Most of the house is carved from stone and dark hardwood. Rooms are decorated with relics of foreign countries. Walls are covered in colorful and textured materials. Artisans took collective countless hours to ensure every detail of the home fits into the category of “excellent.”
It could be easy to scoff at this aspect of things and chalk it up to “rich people being vain.” I get that, but I also encourage you to also think of excellence as a good thing. It does not necessitate vanity. Heaven will be excellent. The Old Covenant Temple was excellent. Do you not marvel at a captivating painting or a well-built piece of custom furniture? Of course you do. Why? Because they are excellent.
Christians should pursue excellence in all things and elegance in the home. We do not need to overthink this. It looks like researching color schemes before you paint rooms. It means taking the time to repair an antique rather than replacing it with something cheaply made in Taiwan. It means keeping your home in relative order and cleanliness. It means you mow your grass and do not let your property look like a flea market. It means you manage your slice of the world in a way that communicates, “God has given this to me, and I want to make it excellent.”
HOSPITALITY
Once the house was finished (shortly after Idaho became a state), hospitality became a fulltime endeavor at the Biltmore. Foreign dignitaries, American politicians, family friends and prominent businessmen began to flow in and out of the Biltmore. It was a place of hosting. People were welcomed, ideas were shared, contracts were signed, and progress was made in various avenues. The house contains 35 guest bedrooms! The scheduling of guests alone would have been a fulltime job.
How hospitable are we with our homes? Hospitality is important enough that God made it a qualification for church leaders. He wants us in each others’ homes. We are meant to share life with one another more than just a couple hours on Sunday morning. Hospitality honors people and obeys God.
There are certainly more aspects of the Biltmore Estate that are commendable and worth passing down to coming generations of Christians. Sadly, the house and grounds today are essentially a museum. They speak to another time when our country had other priorities (mostly better, in my opinion). Just because the Estate no longer exists in full glory, the principles it depended upon and exemplified are still excellent and right for Christian homes today.
The Biltmore Estate is situated in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. The Gilded Age home is nearly 180,000 square feet and rests within a property that was, at its largest, 125,000 acres. This place is, in every way, unbelievably massive.
As our day of touring and wandering the grounds came to a close, I came to the conclusion that much about the Biltmore and the ethos behind it was not just impressive, but objectively good. There is no other home in the nation that matches the Biltmore in terms of size (literally none), but each and every home can and must strive to match the goodness of the Biltmore. What follows are a few qualities exemplified by this grand estate that are worth cultivating in our lives right now - regardless of the acreage we do or do not own.
PIETY
George Vanderbilt constructed his home with a message in mind and on display. This mansion was no monument to secularism or a mere celebration of what man can achieve. Christianity fills rooms and adorns halls at the Biltmore. In the largest room in the home, the banquet hall, a Latin inscription is carved into the stone walls above the entrance for all to see. The words translate into “Give peace, O Lord, in these days.” Heading to the library, three massive tapestries fill a hallway. They tell the story of the Bible and promote the unchanging virtues of Christianity.
Vanderbilt was, according to the curators, a committed Episcopalian (back when Episcopalians took the Bible seriously). His worldview bleeds through the details of the Biltmore. Walking through the home, we saw what the man was committed to cultivating. Education, music, gardening - these are all natural overflows of the Christian faith. The servants were granted Sundays off so they could attend church and worship God.
I don’t have a banquet hall, but I do have a dining room. Am I promoting Christian piety, not just in the recesses of my heart, but out loud for all who come through my doors? Have my children come to expect me to lead them in study of Scripture and prayer to God? Does my family understand that all we prioritize is in no way arbitrary but comes from our fundamental beliefs about God and his world?
HIERARCHY
God’s world is full of hierarchy. Structure, authority, and accountability are unavoidable and good. Without hierarchy, we entertain chaos, and our God is one of order.
The Biltmore could not have functioned the way it did without embracing hierarchy. There is no way. Everything on that estate fit into a grand workflow. Everyone did their part, in the right order, with respect to the proper authority over them. George Vanderbilt was the master. What he said was unshakeable rule on the estate. Flowing down from him, there were housekeepers of various rank, footmen, ladies’ maids, cooks, stable hands, blacksmiths, farmers, dairy operators and managers, and on and on.
Some had immense responsibilities. Others had very narrow domains to manage. All had a part to play, and it all mattered.
What about in your household? Are you able to answer questions like these:
Who is in charge? What does that mean? What are each person’s responsibilities? What is expected of the oldest child? The youngest child? How are dad and mom different? How are decisions made? What needs to get done on a daily basis and who will do it? Who speaks for the family?
Do you embrace a biblical hierarchy in your household, or does your family function like a free-for-all?
PRODUCTIVITY
To say that the Biltmore was productive is a vast understatement. The house provided employment for a high number of people, and that is just the start.
The estate carried out a number of needed, economic endeavors. The farming fed countless people in the area and region. The dairy was prolific and produced coveted foods considered to be top-tier. The beef that were raised went to market regularly. Timber was (and is still) harvested and sold from the grounds. The Biltmore was not just nice to look at. It produced.
None of us will produce in a way that even compares with the Biltmore, and that is ok. I am talking about principles here. The question we should be asking ought to go something like this: “What has the Lord given me, and how can I best use it to be productive in a godly way?” Remember, God didn’t make us to sit on our hands and enjoy the sunsets. He made us so that we could keep creating. This may be as simple as a loaf of bread, a dozen fresh eggs, or a fruitful garden.
ELEGANCE AND EXCELLENCE
Something can be huge, but not elegant. I think of the Hoover Dam, for example. The Biltmore, enormous in size, maintains elegance throughout. Most of the house is carved from stone and dark hardwood. Rooms are decorated with relics of foreign countries. Walls are covered in colorful and textured materials. Artisans took collective countless hours to ensure every detail of the home fits into the category of “excellent.”
It could be easy to scoff at this aspect of things and chalk it up to “rich people being vain.” I get that, but I also encourage you to also think of excellence as a good thing. It does not necessitate vanity. Heaven will be excellent. The Old Covenant Temple was excellent. Do you not marvel at a captivating painting or a well-built piece of custom furniture? Of course you do. Why? Because they are excellent.
Christians should pursue excellence in all things and elegance in the home. We do not need to overthink this. It looks like researching color schemes before you paint rooms. It means taking the time to repair an antique rather than replacing it with something cheaply made in Taiwan. It means keeping your home in relative order and cleanliness. It means you mow your grass and do not let your property look like a flea market. It means you manage your slice of the world in a way that communicates, “God has given this to me, and I want to make it excellent.”
HOSPITALITY
Once the house was finished (shortly after Idaho became a state), hospitality became a fulltime endeavor at the Biltmore. Foreign dignitaries, American politicians, family friends and prominent businessmen began to flow in and out of the Biltmore. It was a place of hosting. People were welcomed, ideas were shared, contracts were signed, and progress was made in various avenues. The house contains 35 guest bedrooms! The scheduling of guests alone would have been a fulltime job.
How hospitable are we with our homes? Hospitality is important enough that God made it a qualification for church leaders. He wants us in each others’ homes. We are meant to share life with one another more than just a couple hours on Sunday morning. Hospitality honors people and obeys God.
There are certainly more aspects of the Biltmore Estate that are commendable and worth passing down to coming generations of Christians. Sadly, the house and grounds today are essentially a museum. They speak to another time when our country had other priorities (mostly better, in my opinion). Just because the Estate no longer exists in full glory, the principles it depended upon and exemplified are still excellent and right for Christian homes today.
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