Biltmore House

Biltmore, North Carolina

Built– 1895

Architect– Richard Morris Hunt

The Biltmore House, the main house on the Biltmore estate, is a mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet and featuring 250 rooms. Still owned by the Vanderbilt’s descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age, and of significant gardens in the French and English Landscape garden styles in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked eighth in “America’s Favorite Architecture” by the American Institute of Architects.