When the Vanderbilt, they Biltmore and more and more…

(a 5-minute read)

I have always wanted to visit Biltmore, the vast estate near Asheville, NC that was built by George Vanderbilt at the end of the nineteenth century.

Brent Beamon, my right hand man at my gallery in SoHo, comes from North Carolina and when one day recently, the graduating class president of one of America's more eminent private schools located in Asheville, visited the gallery, the two of them insisted that I go at the peak of the Spring blooming season in April.

I e-booked myself into a Sleep Inn at $57 for a mountain-view suite. When I called John, class president and star runner of the track team, if he could join me for dinner next Friday, he said that as long as I was making the trip, I should switch to The Grove Park Inn, a locally renowned resort since 1913.

I found the website and a myriad choice of rooms…I telephoned for more details. Impeccable telephone technique with dulcet tones announced a very professionally run place, and I booked a mountain-view room (at $319), dinner for two on "The Sunset Terrace" for Friday night at 9:00 pm, and dinner for me in "Horizons" for Saturday night at 9:30 ("Be sure to bring a jacket and tie, Mr. Carter.").

Continental Express gets you from Newark to Asheville in two hours. Not wanting to check anything, I carried a small case with cameras and laptop, and a soft bag with the obligatory jacket and tie for Saturday night.

Just so you know, the jet was teeny, with bins smaller than a laptop-I had to turn in the case at the top of the jetway. Two hours later, I was picking up my Hertz, a Mazda 626. The counter clerk smiled, "Can we help you with directions?"

I said, "I'm going to The Grove Park…" "Inn," he said, finishing my sentence for me. "Why nearly 60% of the people coming in on Continental go to The Grove Park Inn, isn't that right, Mary Lou?" smiling at his assistant. She nodded a smile. Nice people; this is the South after all.

Reminiscent of the old Lake Placid Club, The Grove Park Inn is an immense, sprawling, hotel built of granite boulders with fireplaces even larger than at "The Point." Two wings now adjoin the original 6-storey main building, providing a total of 510 guest rooms and many meeting rooms. The place is filled with its original, mission oak furniture and Roycroft lighting fixtures, copies of which decorate the contemporary rooms.

The Spa Services Directory, found next to my bed, says, "Welcome to one of America's truly legendary resorts…and to the finest spa in North America." Really!? I never took the time to look.

The view from my room to the Blue Ridge Mountains is gorgeous, as is the golf course in the foreground. A brass plaque on my door (room 5038) says, "Ice Skater and Olympic Gold Medalist (sic), Dorothy Hamill was a guest here in 1996." Other than that, the room is pretty basic but does have crown molding and above average fabrics, but a very small bathroom. The king bed's mattress is a delight and there are lots of fluffy white towels. (I could have had the same mountains and a larger room at the Sleep Inn for a lot less money, but it wouldn't have been legendary.)

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copyright © 2006, EDWARD CARTER