The Vanderbilts employed about eighty people to take care of the house.

VOA: special.2009.11.16

Other workers took care of the many horses the Vanderbilts owned.

VOA: special.2009.11.16

The Vanderbilts sold the farm in 1986 to a developer, and it quickly went downhill.

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The Vanderbilts, one of the most prestigious families in America, were the sort of social barons that Gatsby longed to emulate.

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The Vanderbilts actually had booked passage from Europe on that doomed ship in 1912, but decided to sail earlier on the Olympic, a sister ship.

WSJ: Biltmore Estate | King of the Castles | Masterpiece by Julia M. Klein