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Asheville


Biltmore Estate Archives
One North Pack Square
Asheville, NC 28801
704/274-6270

The Biltmore Estate Archives operates with limited personnel. Access to the collections is very restricted.

Architectural Drawings

The archives holds over 500 drawings of the Biltmore house, representing approximately one-half of Richard Morris Hunt's Biltmore work. (The remainder of his work is owned by the American Architectural Foundation, Inc., Prints and Drawings Collection, Washington, DC; see Appendix B.) There are also drawings for various estate and Biltmore Village buildings including the Frith House, All Souls Church and parsonage, Biltmore railroad station, and Buck Springs Lodge.

Works by the following architects and contractors are represented in the collection:

Aero-Service Corporation (Aerial views of the estate and portions of Buncombe County, 1964)
Baber, Cort, Wood (Biltmore house music room renovation 1976)
Fairchild Aerial (Asheville planning district maps, 1959)
Hunt, Richard Howland (Chicken Tender's House, Truck Farm, Dairy Building)
Hunt, Richard Morris (Biltmore House, Biltmore Estate, All Souls Church, Bucksprings Lodge)
Kitchell, Bruce (The Frith House, The Frithlett in Palm Beach Florida)
Lord, W. H. (Judge Adams House, Clarence House, 1913)
Lord, Anthony (Dairy Barns, Biltmore Diary Offices, 1937)
Olmsted Brothers (Alt. Plan for Location of Biltmore Farms Off., 1900, Dairy Barns, Retaining Wall, 1900)
Parker, Charles N. (additions and alterations Judge Adams Home)
Roberts, Kenneth (Wall Garden)
Schuler, John & A.C. Alberga (I-26 addition, 1964)
Smith & Carrier (Rangers Cottages)
Smith, Richard Sharp (Angle Street Cottages, Vernon Hill, Ranger Cottages)
Starr Mill Cooler Co. (Dairy Building cooling units, 1900)
Steele, Fletcher, landscape architect (The Frith House)
Waddell, Charles (Biltmore House substation, Monocyclic, 3 Phase connections, 1904)

Correspondence Files

Correspondence records include detailed correspondence between Richard Sharp Smith and Richard Morris Hunt; between Smith and Charles McNamee (construction supervisor). A collection of McNamee letterbooks documents the entire construction of the Biltmore House and Estate (1890-1895). The Biltmore Archives also holds the payroll records during construction and operation of the estate.

Photograph Collection

The Biltmore Archives also holds a collection of photographs documenting the complete construction of the estate. There are over 250 building and 350 landscape photographs. Also includes photographs of Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted.

Richard Morris Hunt Architectural Model

The Biltmore Estate owns an architectural model of the main house done by Richard Morris Hunt in 1889.


Pack Memorial Library
North Carolina Collection
Asheville NC 28801
704/255-5203

Richard Sharp Smith Letters (1890s-1904)

Three letterbooks, many written during the construction of the Biltmore House, Asheville. (See also City of Asheville - Historic Properties Commission for a description of the drawings of Richard Sharp Smith and the firm of Smith & Carrier.)

Vertical Files, Newspaper Clippings

Newspaper clippings relating to local architects and buildings of western North Carolina.