Tickets to Biltmore include a two day pass that allows one to wander around the grounds and a walk through of the public rooms.  Two days really are needed to see it all.

At an additional cost, tickets for guided tours in small groups allow guests a more personal look at life during the time frame of Biltmore.  A tour entitled Upstairs, Downstairs shows the contrast of daily life for the owners and guests and for the staff.

A previous post showed the opulence upstairs.  A bit of that continues on the lowest level of the house, especially for the men.  This is a smoking room.

The gun room…

provided another getaway for males.

There was also a bowling alley,

a swimming pool,

and a workout room.

The rooms that kept life going at Biltmore were where the servants lived and worked, like the kitchen.

The dumb waiter was an efficient method to serve food at the correct temperature.  Downstairs maids would prepare the food and load it.  Then an upstairs maid would gather it and serve it.

Also on the lowest level or basement were rooms for food storage, both canned and

fresh.

The dreaded laundry room.  Just think, all those clothes of guests, linens from the beds, napkins, and on and on had to be washed, dried, and ironed.

Not sure, but the roller on the right was probably a steamer iron for sheets and tablecloths.

A drying rack for larger items.

Ironing.  I pity the souls who labored here.

It seems that George Vanderbilt thought of everything.

A room where fresh flowers were arranged – probably daily.

Vases for flower arrangements.

Dining room for the servants.  Our guide said to think Downton Abbey because it was accurate about life on a large estate.

A maid’s sleeping quarters.

And another one.

It would be easy to berate the lifestyle of the upper classes in the  1880’s and early 1900’s as being abusive of the lower classes.  The truth is that Vanderbilt brought jobs to the area, built housing for town and field and dairy workers, constructed a church and other buildings in the nearby town of Asheville.

Although I can’t fathom the lives of the either the rich or the poor at that time, it was what it was.  Events of the present day indicate that people still think that life is not fair.

“The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.”  Eliza Doolitte from My Fair Lady