Castles of America: tours of opulent mansions reveal how the upper crust turned fantasies into reality

Travel America, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Randy Mink

From the auto baron estates of Detroit to the high-society mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, visits to the most sumptuous houses in America provide a window on how the rich and famous lived out their wildest dreams.

Everyone is curious about the lifestyles of people blessed with unlimited cash. And we've all envisioned our own ideal home, fantasizing how we would relax and entertain in a showplace castle designed to satisfy our every whim.

Touring historic mansions once inhabited by the likes of Vanderbilts and Rockefellers not only reveals intimate glimpses of how the upper crust lived, but spotlights America's rich cultural and artistic heritage as well.

Many of these architectural masterpieces were built between the 1880s and 1920s, when the United States was emerging as an economic powerhouse. Captains of industry amassed great fortunes faster than they could spend them.

Members of this new aristocracy used their millions to build royal estates, commissioning lavish homes fashioned after European castles and palaces, and furnishing them with art treasures from abroad. Taxes were low or nonexistent, servants plentiful and cheap.

Hearst Castle, perhaps the best known of America's great manors, was the 127-acre California estate of bombastic publisher and movie mogul William Randolph Hearst. Now a state historic monument, it overlooks San Simeon Bay, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 1919 Hearst began constructing his personal Xanadu, naming the mountain-top hideaway La Cuesta Encantada, or "The Enchanted Hill." Created to give the illusion of a Spanish hill town, the 165-room complex (which took 28 years to complete) includes a 115-room central building, three guest cottages, terraces, pools, gardens, and courtyards.

Hearst collected all the European objects he could get his hands on--beds, chairs, carved doors, church statuary --much of it from Spain and Italy. He even acquired an entire Spanish monastery, which was shipped in 10,700 crates.

The cathedral-like main building, La Casa Grande, was designed after a church in Ronda, Spain. Medievel banners, a Flemish tapestry, and Spanish choir stalls dominate the dining room, where Hearst (1863-1951) and his live-in girlfriend, actress Marion Davies, entertained heads of state, titans of industry and movie stars like Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin.

Tour 1, recommended for first-time visitors, features old home movies of celebrities at the castle. The movie is shown hourly on a giant screen down at the visitors center.

The marble Neptune Pool, which was kept heated at a constant 70 degrees, is noted for its classical temple facade and semi-circular colonnades. One tour shows the swimming pool's 17 colorfully painted dressing rooms. The indoor Roman Pool is tiled with gold and Venetian glass.

North Carolina's Biltmore Estate is equally grand. Imagine living in a French Renaissance chateau with 34 bedrooms, 43 baths, and 65 fireplaces--a rambling palace adorned with priceless paintings and furniture acquired on your collecting trips around the world.

George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914) not only imagined it--he had the money (inherited from his family's railroad empire) to make his vision a reality in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ensconced on 8,000 acres outside of Asheville, the 250-room residence is billed as "America's largest privately owned home."

Completed in 1895 and today owned by William Cecil, grand, son of George Vanderbilt, the mansion was one of the most technologically advanced homes in its day. It boasted hot and cold running water, central heating, refrigeration, elevators, 10 Bell telephones, and some of Thomas Edison's first light bulbs--luxuries unheard of at the turn of the century. House guests were also able to enjoy the indoor swimming pool, bowling alley, billiard room, and gymnasium.

In the cavernous medieval Banquet Hall (70 feet high), the Vanderbilts staged lavish affairs. Enough fresh fish to feed 50 people was flown in daily from New York, and the same amount of lobster was shipped twice a week.

Biltmore's lordly library, the favorite room of many visitors, served as a personal retreat for the scholarly George Vanderbilt, who employed a librarian to catalog his 23,000-volume collection of books. The walnut stacks rise almost to the ceiling, which is graced with an 18th century painting that once decorated the ballroom of a palace in Venice, Italy. Equally impressive are the black marble fireplace and richly carved walnut over-mantel framing a 17th century French tapestry.

In addition to a house tour, visitors to Biltmore can stroll through the exquisite flower gardens, tour the estate's winery, dine at several restaurants, and stay overnight at the Inn on Biltmore Estate, a 213-room hotel.

The historic Hudson Valley, a tranquil setting for the posh estates of movers and shakers from New York City, is a gold mine for castle-hopping tourists. As early as the 1830s, writers turned out literary works extolling the Hudson as America's Rhine, complete with its own castles and legends.