Biltmore Estate

The largest privately owned house in the United States, 178,926 square feet of floor space, built in Châteauesque style for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895, and still owned by his descendants. He had visited Asheville with his mother through the 1880s and liked the scenery and climate enough to build what he called his little mountain escape, while his older brothers and sisters were building theirs at Newport and on the Gold Coast. It stands as one of the most prominent Gilded Age houses anywhere.