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| biltmore estate dark history: The Last Castle Denise Kiernan, 2017-09-26 A New York Times bestseller with an engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News & Observer) untold, true story behind the Biltmore Estate—the largest, grandest private residence in North America, which has seen more than 120 years of history pass by its front door. The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy. This is the fascinating, “soaring and gorgeous” (Karen Abbott) story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Ghosthunting North Carolina Kala Ambrose, 2011-09-13 Journey with author Kala Ambrose as she explores the most terrifying paranormal spots in the state of North Carolina. She begins in the coastal wetlands of East Carolina where she explores haunted lighthouses, battleships, forts, and the shipwrecked beaches where Blackbeard and his pirates still roam. She tours the Piedmont area of NC and visits the most actively haunted capitol in the US and interacts with the ghost of a former NC State Governor. Her journey continues west into the Blue Ridge Mountains where the ghost known as the pink lady and her friends await your presence at the historic Grove Park Inn, where many presidents, celebrities and ghosts have stayed over the decades. Travel information is provided to each haunted location for those brave enough to make the journey in person and for paranormal researchers who are interested in exploring haunted North Carolina. Join Kala Ambrose as your guide to Ghosthunting North Carolina as she takes you behind the scenes with detailed information about each destination. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Serafina and the Black Cloak Robert Beatty, 2015-07-14 Never go into the deep parts of the forest, for there are many dangers there, and they will ensnare your soul. Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of the Biltmore estate.There's plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate's maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is:a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore's corridors at night. Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of the Biltmore's owners. Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak's true identity...before all of the children vanish one by one. Serafina's hunt leads her into the very forest that she has been taught to fear. There she discovers a forgotten legacy of magic, one that is bound to her own identity. In order to save the children of Biltmore, Serafina must seek the answers that will unlock the puzzle of her past. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Lady on the Hill Howard E. Covington, 2006-03-10 In the late 1950s, attorneys, financial managers, and tax accountants were united in advising Cecil and his brother, George, to sell off the estate's 12,000 acres in order to create a suburban subdivision. Cecil quietly ignored this advice and came up with a better idea: over the next four decades, he would turn this down-at-the-heels mansion that was a drain on the family business into the most successful, privately preserved historic site in the United States, perhaps even the world. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Serafina and the Twisted Staff Robert Beatty, 2016-07-12 Serafina's defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate. Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the cat¬amount. But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she's too wild for Biltmore's beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin. Late one night, Serafina encounters a strange and terrifying figure in the forest, and is attacked by the vicious wolfhounds that seem to be under his control. Even worse, she's convinced that the stranger was not alone, that he has sent his accomplice into Biltmore in disguise. Someone is wreaking havoc at the estate. A mysterious series of attacks test Serafina's role as Biltmore's protector, culminating in a tragedy that tears Serafina's best friend and only ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, from her side. Heartbroken, she flees. Deep in the forest, Serafina comes face-to-face with the evil infecting Biltmore—and discovers its reach is far greater than she'd ever imagined. All the humans and creatures of the Blue Ridge Mountains are in terrible danger. For Serafina to defeat this new evil before it engulfs her beloved home, she must search deep inside herself and embrace the destiny that has always awaited her. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Serafina and the Seven Stars Robert Beatty, 2019-07-09 Serafina and Braeden make an epic return in the hotly anticipated fourth installment of Robert Beatty's #1 New York Times best-selling series. Serafina, the Guardian of Biltmore Estate, has won battle after battle against the dark forces encroaching on her home. Now, tranquility has returned to Biltmore. Serafina doesn’t trust it. She patrols the grounds night and day, hardly sleeping, uncertain of her place after her best friend Braeden Vanderbilt's departure for boarding school in New York. When Mr. Vanderbilt, the kind master of Biltmore, asks Serafina to move upstairs into one of the house's grandest rooms, she's sure it's to keep an eye on the guests who have arrived for the estate's annual hunt. But as Serafina investigates, she becomes more and more unsettled by what Biltmore has become—a place haunted by nameless terrors where no dark corridor is safe. Even worse, she begins to doubt her own senses. Is Braeden really hundreds of miles away, or did he return to Biltmore for one strange night before vanishing? Is the bond between them truly broken or is it stronger than ever? Then Serafina witnesses a crime that turns her world upside down. How can all that once seemed good and worthy of protection now be evil? And how can she guard those around her when she can't even be sure of the truth of her own heart? Serafina and the Seven Stars marks the return of a heroine like no other, as master storyteller Robert Beatty weaves his darkest, most astonishing tale yet. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Willa of Dark Hollow Robert Beatty, 2021-05-04 This enchanting companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times bestseller Willa of the Wood is perfect for any reader who cares deeply about the natural world. Willa and her clan are the last of the Faeran, an ancient race of forest people who have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for as long as the trees have grown there. But as crews of newly arrived humans start cutting down great swaths of the forest she loves, she is helpless to stop them. How can she fight the destroyers of the forest and their powerful machines?When Willa discovers a mysterious dark hollow filled with strange and beautiful creatures, she comes to realize that it contains a terrifying force that seems to be hunting humans. Is unleashing these dangerous spirits the key to stopping the loggers? Willa must find a way to save the people and animals she loves and take a stand against a consuming darkness that threatens to destroy her world.Filled with a compelling mixture of history, mystery, and magic, Robert Beatty's books are loved by readers from 8 to 108.Grow your middle grade fantasy collection with these best-selling fan favorites:Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert BeattyWilla of the Wood by Robert BeattyIf We Were Giants by Dave Matthews and Clete Barrett SmithThe Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick RiordanThe Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer |
| biltmore estate dark history: Serafina and the Splintered Heart Robert Beatty, 2017-07-03 In the highly-anticipated next installment of the Serafina series, Serafina must confront the darkest threat she's ever encountered at Biltmore Estate. She knows she can face anything with her best friend and closest ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, by her side. But when a sinister force tears them apart, Serafina scrambles to uncover the mystery of her most formidable challenge yet...and about herself and the destiny that awaits her. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Vanderbilt Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe, 2021-09-21 New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts. One of the Washington Post's Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2021 When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all. Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other. Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Maid to Match Deeanne Gist, 2010 From the day she arrives at the Biltmore, Tillie Reese is dazzled by the riches of the Vanderbilts and by Mack Danvers, a mountain man turned footman. When Tillie is enlisted to help tame Mack's rugged behavior by tutoring him in the ways of refined society, the resulting sparks threaten Tillie's But the stakes rise even higher when Mack and Tillie become entangled in a cover-up at the town orphanage. They could both lose their...jobs and their hearts--Cover p. [4]. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Haunted Asheville Joshua P. Warren, 1996 A beautiful young woman dies from a fall in Asheville's greatest hotel ... and the Pink Lady is said to still wander the massive halls of the Grove Park Inn. A building is constructed on the grounds of a miserable, ancient cemetery ... now they say you can still hear strange noises at night in the halls of Clyde A. Erwin High School. In 1908, a group of prisoners finally comes to Christ ... after being terrorized at night by a spook in the Buncombe County Jail. A distraught mother hangs herself from the rafters of a looming Beaucatcher Mountain bridge ... and the legend of Helen is born. These stories and more can be found within the pages of this remarkable book. A surreal mixture of history and myth, it searches for the fading morsels of truth while examining the feasts of folklore. These are the tales that linger in the minds of Asheville, as old and flavored as the mountains themselves. From secret chambers in aged castles to cryptic etchings on forgotten tombstones, this mountain town is filled with the lore and intrigue of the mysterious side of life.--Publisher description |
| biltmore estate dark history: A Holiday Haunting at the Biltmore Eva Pohler, 2022-01-01 Ellen should have known that a gathering in America's last castle would entail a few uninvited guests. During a Christmas eve wedding at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, Ellen and her friends are visited by multiple ghosts. The spirits have come to tell their stories, to right the wrongs that history has done to their memories. Each of them died in Asheville with their voices stifled. One spirit is particularly adamant and threatening, despite her small size, and her mood fluctuates like the mountain winds surrounding the great estate. She claims to be the ghost of Zelda Fitzgerald, and she wants her story told, even if she has to kill to make it happen. Voted Best Mystery Book of the Year for 2022 at Utopia Con! The books in this series can be read in any order. Related Authors: Angie Fox, Joanne Fluke, Christine Pope, ReGina Welling, Heather Graham, Yasmine Galenorn, Karen White, James Hunt, Shea MacLeod, Lily Webb, Alexandria Clark, Bobbi Holmes, Darcy Coates, Skylar Finn, Nyx Halliwell, Darynda Jones, Roger Hayden, Kelly Martin, Trixie Silvertale, L.A. Boruff, Angela M. Sanders, Lee Mountford, E.E. Holmes, Connor Donnelly, R.A. Muth, A.N. Willis, Wendy Wang, H.P. Bayne, and Lisa Bouchard. Search Terms: paranormal mysteries, supernatural mysteries, supernatural suspense, paranormal women's fiction, ghost fiction, cozy paranormal mysteries, women's fiction mystery, haunted house books, horror fiction, occult fiction, ghost mysteries, mystery books, women sleuths, amateur sleuths, and paranormal investigators. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Cut to the Bone Jefferson Bass, 2013-09-24 Jefferson Bass’s Cut to the Bone, the long-awaited prequel to his New York Times bestselling mystery series, turns the clock back to reveal the Body Farm's creation—and Dr. Bill Brockton's deadly duel with a serial killer. In the summer of 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore begin their long-shot campaign to win the White House. In the sweltering hills of Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Bill Brockton, the bright, ambitious young head of the Anthropology Department, launches an unusual—some would call it macabre—research facility, unlike any other in existence. Brockton is determined to revolutionize the study of forensics to help law enforcement better solve crime. But his plans are derailed by a chilling murder that leaves the scientist reeling from a sense of déjà vu. Followed by another. And then another: bodies that bear eerie resemblances to cases from Brockton’s past. But as the body count rises, the victims’ fatal injuries grow more and more distinctive—a spiral of death that holds dark implications for Brockton...and everyone he holds dear. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Hidden History of the Dark Corner Drew Hines, 2024-03-18 The Dark in the Dark Corner Years ago, when travelers to northern Greenville County asked a local where the Dark Corner was, invariably their reply was, Just a little further up the road. In those days few people wanted to admit they lived in that much storied and much maligned part of the county known as the Dark Corner. The Dark Corner in those days was legendary for its moonshine, murder and mayhem. This is the story of that well-known region. We travel back to the Dark Corner's earliest days when its only human inhabitants were the Cherokee, and we move into the present where horse farms and multi-million-dollar homes dot the countryside that once contained moonshine stills and cornfields. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil John Berendt, 1994-01-13 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Sargent Paintings John Singer Sargent, Barbara N Sargent-Baur, 2000-06-12 John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) produced works that helped establish the popular image of life among the rich and privileged. Sargent's skill in capturing a sense of aristocratic refinement, the dazzling richness of his brushwork, and his ability to flatter his subjects shine bright throughout this superb card collection. 24 full-color paintings include Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast, Garden Study of the Vickers Children, Self-Portrait, The Sons of Mrs. Malcolm Forbes, and more. Ready to frame or mail, these fine art cards have been meticulously reproduced at the highest possible standards. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Willa of the Wood Robert Beatty, 2018-07-10 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Beatty comes a spooky, thrilling new series set in the magical world of Serafina. Move without a sound. Steal without a trace. Willa, a young nightspirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk in the cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work—the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand. But when Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in a day-folk man's home, everything she thought she knew about her people—and their greatest enemy—is forever changed. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Fortune's Children Arthur T. Vanderbilt, II, 2013-04-16 Vanderbilt: the very name signifies wealth. The family patriarch, the Commodore, built up a fortune that made him the world's richest man by 1877. Yet, less than fifty years after the Commodore's death, one of his direct descendants died penniless, and no Vanderbilt was counted among the world's richest people. Fortune's Children tells the dramatic story of all the amazingly colorful spenders who dissipated such a vast inheritance. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Biltmore Estate John Bryan, 1994-09-15 Original architectural drawings, sketches, plans, 19th century photographs, and new color photographs give the history and description of this architectural landmark. |
| biltmore estate dark history: You Can't Go Home Again Thomas Wolfe, 2011-10-11 Now available from Thomas Wolfe’s original publisher, the final novel by the literary legend, that “will stand apart from everything else that he wrote” (The New York Times Book Review)—first published in 1940 and long considered a classic of twentieth century literature. A twentieth-century classic, Thomas Wolfe’s magnificent novel is both the story of a young writer longing to make his mark upon the world and a sweeping portrait of America and Europe from the Great Depression through the years leading up to World War II. Driven by dreams of literary success, George Webber has left his provincial hometown to make his name as a writer in New York City. When his first novel is published, it brings him the fame he has sought, but it also brings the censure of his neighbors back home, who are outraged by his depiction of them. Unsettled by their reaction and unsure of himself and his future, Webber begins a search for a greater understanding of his artistic identity that takes him deep into New York’s hectic social whirl; to London with an uninhibited group of expatriates; and to Berlin, lying cold and sinister under Hitler’s shadow. He discovers a world plagued by political uncertainty and on the brink of transformation, yet he finds within himself the capacity to meet it with optimism and a renewed love for his birthplace. He is a changed man yet a hopeful one, awake to the knowledge that one can never fully “go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…away from all the strife and conflict of the world…back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time.” |
| biltmore estate dark history: Jewish Community of Atlanta, The Jeremy Katz, Foreword by , 2021 As Atlanta evolved from a sleepy, backwater, 19th-century frontier railroad town into a 21st-century international metropolis, Jewish men and women significantly contributed to the rich tapestry of the Gate City of the South. The commercial infrastructure of the expanding city was greatly enhanced through numerous small businesses established by Jewish merchants, some of which became major players in various industries. Many of Atlanta's most recognizable icons--The Coca-Cola Company, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Atlanta Braves--originated, in part, thanks to support from visionary leaders in the Jewish community. While there are many success stories throughout Atlanta's Jewish history, there are also dark episodes of blatant antisemitism that traumatized the community and had national implications. The lynching of Leo M. Frank; the bombing of the city's historic synagogue, the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation; and the deliberate expulsion of Jewish students from Emory University Dental School marred Atlanta's self-proclaimed reputation as The City Too Busy to Hate. |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Girls of Atomic City Denise Kiernan, 2014-03-11 This is the story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history. The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project's secret cities. All knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb Little Boy was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The reverberations from their work there, work they did not fully understand at the time, are still being felt today. |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Wedding Veil Kristy Woodson Harvey, 2022-03-29 This “masterfully woven…literary home run” (New York Journal of Books) follows four women across generations, bound by a beautiful wedding veil and a connection to the famous Vanderbilt family from the New York Times bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series. Four women. One family heirloom. A secret connection that will change their lives—and history as they know it. Present Day: Julia Baxter’s wedding veil, bequeathed to her great-grandmother by a mysterious woman on a train in the 1930s, has passed through generations of her family as a symbol of a happy marriage. But on the morning of her wedding day, something tells her that even the veil’s good luck isn’t enough to make her marriage last forever. Overwhelmed, she escapes to the Virgin Islands to clear her head. Meanwhile, her grandmother, Babs, is also feeling shaken. Still grieving the death of her beloved husband, she decides to move into a retirement community. Though she hopes it’s a new beginning, she does not expect to run into an old flame, dredging up the same complicated emotions she felt a lifetime ago. 1914: Socialite Edith Vanderbilt is struggling to manage the luxurious Biltmore Estate after the death of her cherished husband. With 250 rooms to oversee and an entire village dependent on her family to stay afloat, Edith is determined to uphold the Vanderbilt legacy—and prepare her free-spirited daughter Cornelia to inherit it—despite her family’s deteriorating financial situation. But Cornelia has dreams of her own, and as she explores more of the rapidly changing world around her, she’s torn between upholding tradition and pursuing the exciting future that lies beyond Biltmore’s gilded gates. In the vein of Therese Anne Fowler’s A Well-Behaved Woman and Jennifer Robson’s The Gown, The Wedding Veil is “a sparkling, fast-paced joy of a book that celebrates love, family, and the right to shape one’s own destiny” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author). |
| biltmore estate dark history: Gardens of North Carolina Peter Loewer, 2007 Full-color photographs. Information for visitors. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Ghosts of Boston Sam Baltrusis, 2012 It should come as no surprise that one of the nation's oldest cities brims with spirits of those who lived and died in its hundreds of years of tumultuous history. Boston, Massachusetts, boasts countless stories of the supernatural. Many students at Boston College have encountered an unearthly hound that haunts O'Connell House to this day. Be on the watch for an actor who sits in on rehearsals at Huntington Theatre and restless spirits rumored to haunt Boston Common at night. From the Victorian brownstones of Back Bay to the shores of the Boston Harbor Islands, author Sam Baltrusis makes it clear that there is hardly a corner of the Hub where the paranormal cannot be experienced as he breathes new life into the tales of the long departed. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Folly Beach Stratton Lawrence, 2013 Discover the history of Folly Beach and how it transformed over the years from Coffin Island to a popular vacation destination. Folly Beach was not named for its carefree inhabitants' lifestyles, but it is a fitting moniker nonetheless. Originally dubbed Folly for its dense foliage and forests just across the marsh from James Island and Charleston, the six-mile sliver of land has served as an outpost for Civil War soldiers, an inspiration to George Gershwin, and a place of fond memories for thousands of residents, vacationers, and day-trippers seeking time to relax in the sea and sand. Long before Folly became a place for respite and relaxation, however, it served as a quarantine island for sick sailors, forebodingly referred to as Coffin Island. By the 1950s, Folly's dark history was sufficiently replaced with an amusement park, bowling alley, and moonlight dances out on the pier. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Beneath the Estate Nick Allen Brown, 2024-12-03 Locked away for over a century, this machine holds an alluring secret. After remaining sealed for generations, a hidden room is discovered in the basement of the famed Biltmore Estate. Within the musty, decaying confines of the hidden room, a large mechanical machine comes to light. Crafted with intricate gears, levers, and sophisticated mechanisms, the contraption is hailed as a significant archaeological discovery. The esteemed board of directors overseeing the operations of the Biltmore Estate enlists the expertise of Professor Dr. Daniel Garrison to unravel the purpose and origin of this enigmatic machine. While Dr. Garrison investigates, readers are transported back to the year 1906, when George Vanderbilt II commissions an inventor to construct this mysterious apparatus. What secrets lie within this machine? Why was it brought into existence? This compelling tale unfolds across intertwining narratives—the investigation of the machine in the present day and its creation back in 1906—to deliver a captivating and riveting ending. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Smyth County Revisited Kimberly Barr Byrd, Debbie J. Williams, 2007 A companion to Images of America: Smyth County, this volume, Smyth County Revisited, depicts some of the history of the area. Come examine the first land tracts surveyed west of New River. Learn of the vast amount of history surrounding Fort Kilmackronan, which still stands today. Explore the Indian Fields, and learn of the ghosts that still haunt them. Visit the many Civil War sites in this area and tour the localities where Civil War uniforms and supplies were manufactured for the Confederacy. Find out why Smyth County became “the hub of the herbal industry” and how it went on to become the world’s largest distributor of these medicinal remedies. Discover why the county’s first library was located in the ladies’ room of the courthouse. Come survey the many other sites and memorable events that entertained so many generations for decades. |
| biltmore estate dark history: A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History Tim Grove, 2014-05-01 For more than twenty years, Tim Grove has worked at the most popular history museums in the United States, helping millions of people get acquainted with the past. This book translates that experience into an insider’s tour of some of the most interesting moments in American history. Grove’s stories are populated with well-known historical figures such as John Brown, Charles Lindbergh, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea—as well as the not-so-famous. Have you heard of Mary Pickersgill, seamstress of the Star-Spangled Banner flag? Grove also has something to say about a few of our cherished myths, for instance, the lore surrounding Betsy Ross and Eli Whitney. Grove takes readers to historic sites such as Harpers Ferry, Fort McHenry, the Ulm Pishkun buffalo jump, and the Lemhi Pass on the Lewis and Clark Trail and traverses time and space from eighteenth-century Williamsburg to the twenty-first-century Kennedy Space Center. En route from Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic to Cape Disappointment on the Pacific, we learn about planting a cotton patch on the National Mall, riding a high wheel bicycle, flying the transcontinental airmail route, and harnessing a mule. Is history relevant? This book answers with a resounding yes and, in the most entertaining fashion, shows us why. |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Scattered Nation Zebulon Baird Vance, Willis Bruce Dowd, 1904 |
| biltmore estate dark history: I Am Mercy Mandi Lynn, 2018-12-11 In 14th century France, Aida is accused of being a witch when the Black Death wipes through her village. Abandoned by her family, she is surrounded by death and disease, but when a woman who may actually be a witch tells her how to cure the plague, it may mean uncovering a dark magic. |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Fever of 1721 Stephen Coss, 2016-03-08 The “intelligent and sweeping” (Booklist) story of the crucial year that prefigured the events of the American Revolution in 1776—and how Boston’s smallpox epidemic was at the center of it all. In The Fever of 1721 Stephen Coss brings to life the amazing cast of characters who changed the course of medical history, American journalism, and colonial revolution: Cotton Mather, the great Puritan preacher, son of the President of Harvard College; Zabdiel Boylston, a doctor whose name is on one of Boston’s avenues; James Franklin and his younger brother Benjamin; and Elisha Cooke and his protégé Samuel Adams. Coss describes how, during the worst smallpox epidemic in Boston history Mather convinced Doctor Boylston to try making an incision in the arm of a healthy person and implanting it with smallpox matter. Public outrage forced Boylston into hiding and Mather’s house was firebombed. “In 1721, Boston was a dangerous place…In Coss’s telling, the troubles of 1721 represent a shift away from a colony of faith and toward the modern politics of representative government” (The New York Times Book Review). Elisha Cooke and Samuel Adams were beginning to resist the British in the run-up to the American Revolution. Meanwhile, a bold young printer names James Franklin launched America’s first independent newspaper and landed in jail. His teenaged brother and apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, however, learned his trade in James’s shop and became a father of the Independence movement. One by one, the atmosphere in Boston in 1721 simmered and ultimately boiled over, leading to the full drama of the American Revolution. “Fascinating, informational, and pleasing to read…Coss’s gem of colonial history immerses readers into eighteenth-century Boston and introduces a collection of fascinating people and intriguing circumstances” (Library Journal, starred review). |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Biltmore Story Carl Alwin Schenck, 1955 |
| biltmore estate dark history: Escaping the Dark, Gray City Benjamin Heber Johnson, 2017-01-01 Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION -- ONE: Frontier, Market, and Environmental Crisis -- TWO: Landscapes of Reform -- THREE: Back to Nature -- FOUR: Fighting for Conservation -- FIVE: Fighting over Conservation -- SIX: Fighting Against Conservation -- SEVEN: Epilogue -- Timeline -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y |
| biltmore estate dark history: Deep Echoes Melody Ash, 2019-08-27 She's a no-holds-barred, kick-butt, don't-cover-the-ugly-parts archaeologist. History wants to teach her a lesson. Caitlin Benoit's passion lies in uncovering the secrets of the downtrodden in eras past, finds her blood quickened by a new, intriguing site. An initial exploration leads to the discovery of a mysterious river rock with peculiar etchings. Puzzled, she breaks all the rules to examine the stone closer. When she brushes away the dirt, 2017 folds away to leave Caitlin standing in pre-Civil War Charleston. As she tries to work out how she time traveled to 1859, Caitlin learns the terrifying risk she poses even while she tries to return home. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Ranger Games Ben Blum, 2017-09-12 A gloriously good writer...Ranger Games is both surprising and moving...A memorable, novelistic account.—Jennifer Senior, New York Times Intricate, heartrending, and morally urgent, Ranger Games is a crime story like no other Alex Blum was a good kid, a popular high school hockey star from a tight-knit Colorado family. He had one goal in life: endure a brutally difficult selection program, become a U.S. Army Ranger, and fight terrorists for his country. He poured everything into achieving his dream. In the first hours of his final leave before deployment to Iraq, Alex was supposed to fly home to see his family and beloved girlfriend. Instead, he got into his car with two fellow soldiers and two strangers, drove to a local bank in Tacoma, and committed armed robbery... The question that haunted the entire Blum family was: Why? Why would he ruin his life in such a spectacularly foolish way? At first, Alex insisted he thought the robbery was just another exercise in the famously daunting Ranger program. His attorney presented a case based on the theory that the Ranger indoctrination mirrored that of a cult. In the midst of his own personal crisis, and in the hopes of helping both Alex and his splintering family cope, Ben Blum, Alex’s first cousin, delved into these mysteries, growing closer to Alex in the process. As he probed further, Ben began to question not only Alex, but the influence of his superior, Luke Elliot Sommer, the man who planned the robbery. A charismatic combat veteran, Sommer’s manipulative tendencies combined with a magnetic personality pulled Ben into a relationship that put his loyalties to the test. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Romancing the Roads Gerry Hempel Davis, 2015-11-15 This newly updated compendium of facts, observations, discoveries, reviews, serendipities, humor, experiences, and more is not only for the road traveler, but the armchair traveler as well. It reads not as a phone directory but more as a shared diary of discoveries along America's highways and byways. Unless otherwise noted, the author has visited every place mentioned, from Bud's Discount Center in Jasper, Alabama to the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Even if you never get in the car and discover such wonders for yourself, you will enjoy this vicarious journey to places both sublime and ordinary as the author makes her way from Maine to Florida and west to the Mississippi River. |
| biltmore estate dark history: The Mystery House Eva Pohler, 2015-12-12 Ellen and her two best friends share a mid-life crisis by hatching a plan to renovate an 1860's Greek revival in the nearby historic district of San Antonio. Although Ellen isn't one to believe in ghosts, she comes face to face with something inexplicable in the attic. Her ghost-enthusiast friends convince her that they must help the spirit find closure, and as they dig deeper into the past, they uncover a shocking history that someone in the neighborhood doesn't want exposed. But Ellen and her friends don't give up easily. They realize they've been called to give voice to the invisible women who suffered behind the walls of the house for decades. |
| biltmore estate dark history: Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates Cora Wilson Stewart, 1922 |
| biltmore estate dark history: Ghosts of the Triad Michael Renegar, Amy Spease, 2011-08-23 “A fantastic job of storytelling to the point that it literally sends shivers down the reader’s spine . . . entertaining and informative” (YES! Weekly). Don’t be fooled by the scenic beauty of North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad—the ghosts of the past haunt these rolling hills and unique cities. From the smallpox-stricken ghost that haunts Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem to the slain Revolutionary War soldiers who linger in the park surrounding Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro, these phantoms all have a tale to tell. Some ghosts even support education. Take Jane, the lonely spinster who haunts Aycock Auditorium at the UNC-Greensboro campus, or Herschel, High Point University’s ghost of the former Memorial Theater. And though Spookywoods Haunted Attraction in Kersey Valley often frightens and astounds, some of the resident ghosts aren’t just special effects. Join Camel City Spirit Seekers Michael Renegar and Amy Spease as they reveal the eerie and chilling stories from the heart of the Piedmont. Includes photos! “If you want some spooky ghost stories to get you in the mood for Halloween, Triad ghost-hunters/authors Michael Renegar and Amy Spease may have just what you’re looking for.” —The News & Record |
Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina
Explore Biltmore’s history, architecture, gardens and grounds, cuisine, wine, and more with carefully curated experiences that showcase the breadth of the estate’s appeal.
Visit - Biltmore
A unique mountain destination located in Asheville, NC, Biltmore features a historic home, a thrilling exhibition, an award-winning Winery, dining, shopping, and overnight properties. Join …
Tickets & Pricing - Biltmore
Biltmore ticket pricing varies by type and season. Explore ticket options for Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.
Biltmore House - Biltmore
Experience Biltmore House, known as America’s Largest Home®. Self-guided house visits span three floors and the basement of George and Edith Vanderbilt's home.
Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures - Biltmore
Get your tickets for Biltmore's captivating new exhibition, Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures. Opens March 21, 2025.
Stay on Biltmore Estate
For a Blue Ridge Mountain resort experience, stay on Biltmore Estate at our convenient Village Hotel, four-star Inn, or private historic Cottages.
Biltmore Shop - Wine, Food, Gifts, and More
Our curated collections of Biltmore-inspired products—from fine wine and gourmet foods to unique collectibles, apparel, and more—invite you to share the Biltmore legacy, relive special …
Things to Do - Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC
Whether you seek an active or leisurely retreat, Biltmore’s indoor and outdoor pursuits include something fun for everyone! From shops, tours, and exceptional wine and cuisine to special …
Visit Itinerary: Your Guide to Biltmore
Mar 19, 2025 · This flexible Biltmore visit itinerary is designed to help you make the most of your visit and can be easily tailored based on your preferences and reservation times, allowing you …
Biltmore History - Biltmore
Explore significant moments in Biltmore’s rich history, from George Vanderbilt’s birth to the construction of Biltmore House to the present day.
Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina
Explore Biltmore’s history, architecture, gardens and grounds, cuisine, wine, and more with carefully curated experiences that showcase the breadth of the estate’s appeal.
Visit - Biltmore
A unique mountain destination located in Asheville, NC, Biltmore features a historic home, a thrilling exhibition, an award-winning Winery, dining, shopping, and overnight properties. Join us, and …
Tickets & Pricing - Biltmore
Biltmore ticket pricing varies by type and season. Explore ticket options for Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.
Biltmore House - Biltmore
Experience Biltmore House, known as America’s Largest Home®. Self-guided house visits span three floors and the basement of George and Edith Vanderbilt's home.
Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures - Biltmore
Get your tickets for Biltmore's captivating new exhibition, Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures. Opens March 21, 2025.
Stay on Biltmore Estate
For a Blue Ridge Mountain resort experience, stay on Biltmore Estate at our convenient Village Hotel, four-star Inn, or private historic Cottages.
Biltmore Shop - Wine, Food, Gifts, and More
Our curated collections of Biltmore-inspired products—from fine wine and gourmet foods to unique collectibles, apparel, and more—invite you to share the Biltmore legacy, relive special memories, …
Things to Do - Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC
Whether you seek an active or leisurely retreat, Biltmore’s indoor and outdoor pursuits include something fun for everyone! From shops, tours, and exceptional wine and cuisine to special …
Visit Itinerary: Your Guide to Biltmore
Mar 19, 2025 · This flexible Biltmore visit itinerary is designed to help you make the most of your visit and can be easily tailored based on your preferences and reservation times, allowing you to …
Biltmore History - Biltmore
Explore significant moments in Biltmore’s rich history, from George Vanderbilt’s birth to the construction of Biltmore House to the present day.
