I’d always wanted to visit Biltmore, America’s largest home built for George Washington Vanderbilt II and clocking in at 178,926 sq. ft. in Asheville North Carolina. The town was devastated recently by Hurricane Helene, but the 8000-acre historic estate suffered minimal damage. As a gift for my three grown daughters (one of whom we were visiting for Thanksgiving in nearby Virginia) I’d purchased tickets to visit Biltmore for their Christmas display and their Chihuly art glass exhibit. Visitation to the estate was down by half this month, but as the area’s largest employer it seemed to me that supporting the local economy was crucial, as harrowing as it was to see the devastating impact as we drove through the area.
Experiencing the 250-room Châteauesque-style mansion built between 1889 and 1895 is magnificent at the holidays: there are over 100 decorated trees featuring 25,000 ornaments, a 6 ½ foot “gingerbread house” in the kitchen (spoiler alert: it’s plywood), 2000 poinsettias, 250 fresh wreaths and more. We all agreed that the Beauty and the Beast-style multi-level library with its 20,000 rare books, walk-in fireplace was the most incredible, but there was one place that was the most intriguing.
After perusing the main-floor rooms including the billiards room, multiple dining rooms, grand hallways,music rooms and other elaborate rooms filled with fine European and American furnishings and antiquities, it was in the basement where I was most enchanted. The bowling alley, indoor pool and locker rooms were impressive but there was one mysterious room I wanted to research later: “The Halloween Room.” It’s used as an educational exhibit for informing visitors about the builders of the estate, but the walls retain original handpaintings from a soiree hosted just about a century ago.
Around New Year’s, on December 30, 1925, 99 years ago this week, a Bohemian Ball was hosted in this basement room. Perhaps because it was the prohibition era the wealthy wanted to keep their shenanigans downstairs as they invited an avant-garde Russian cabaret and Broadway theatrical troupe called La Chauve-Souris, (“The Bat”) to spend three weeks painting the walls that would serve as a backdrop for the costumed soiree.
In researching the history of the room for Biltmore, Jean Sexton discovered that this successful vaudevillian comedy troupe toured America in the 1920s, featuring abstract sets designed by two Russian artists, Sergei Sudeikin and Nicolai Remisoff:
The Charleston Daily Mail reported that 100 guests attended the Cecil’s New Year’s Eve festivities. One costumed attendee, local resident James G.K. McClure, recalled arriving in the basement of Biltmore with his wife Elizabeth, armed with a guitar and an old accordion, to find a room full of “cauldrons and pots and glowing fire… all around.” Enchanted by the unexpected theatrics, he wrote a detailed account of the holiday soiree to a friend, reminiscing that it was “the best party I have ever attended.”
Visitors to America’s finest home tour daily as we did on our visit through much finery in historic home furnishings in this architecutral icon, but it is perhaps in the basement where you can see ghosts of the fun that was once has in this majestic home. I wondered if, next year for the 100th, an anniversary bohemian gala celebration will be held to celebrate.