Saturday, May 18, 2013

Stuff in the Biltmore Mansion''s Yard

A bus tour of 24 people was included in our package.  A few of these pictures were taken with the group but more importantly, it showed us how to get to the photogenic ponds and pastoral  types of scenes.


Most of the flora pictures were taken in their gardens and green house, which is just a few hundred feet away from the house.


To give credit where credit is due.  The designer of the house was Richard Morris Hunt.






The docent who said he has the best job in the world because he gets to listen to himself talk.  Below, he is telling us that row of bricks is part of sophisticated dam/water purification system that was ingeniously designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, which was probably his largest project.  He also designed Central Park in Manhattan, NYC.























Below:  Two rivers merge on the property.  Below is the French Broad River.  One of my Hunter ancestors had a tavern on the French Broad River in the early 1800s.  Of course that distant cousin is on my father's side.  On my mother's side, there was Killian family kin living on what would become the Biltmore Estate.  The Killian kin might have been a regular at Hunter's Tavern, no knowing their genes would meet over 200 years later. 





Below - I got a little too close to these geese and of them hissed at me like a snake.  It spoke in an International language.  I didn't have to pull out my duck translator book - it clearly told me to BACK OFF! 


Below - the Biltmore House as seen from the Lagoon. 




There were something like 26 movies filmed on the grounds of the Biltmore Estate.  PRIVATE EYES with Don Knotts; LAST OF THE MOHICANS,;BEING THERE with Peter Sellers to name a few.




No comments: