"Why I Purchased the Biltmore Estate Industries"

Mrs. Vanderbilt started them something over fifteen years ago with the idea of giving industrial training to the boys and girls of the Biltmore Estate and Biltmore village. 

She secured the services of two very able teachers from the North -- Miss Vance and Miss Yale -- and supplied the buildings, machinery and money that made possible the beginnings of what is so familiar to us today as the Biltmore Estate Industries. 

These enterprises were financed and cared for by Mrs. Vanderbilt personally. So far as I know, she started them purely as a philanthropic enterprise, and as a school where our boys and girls could learn useful arts. Many things were taught then, but time proved that the weaving of home-spun cloth and fine wood-carving were the most useful and practical. 

The first boy who entered the school or Industries was George Arthur. Today he is the General Manager and Superintendent of the enterprise. 

Through the years of development these Industries have turned out some wonderful artisans, and among the finest wood carvers of the day will be found old Biltmore boys. For instance: some of the best wood carving in Senator Clark's Fifth Avenue palace, built, as most people know, regardless of cost, was done by a Biltmore Estate Industry boy. The wood carving of another Biltmore boy won the gold medal at the San Francisco Exposition last year, and it is safe to say that as a result of Mrs. Vanderbilt's philanthropy and interest, an art which was rapidly being forgotten has more rapidly been revived, and as the years go on will grow to a perfection beyond what it has ever enjoyed in the past. There is no question but that wood carving as it has been revived at Biltmore is finer, more perfect and more sincere than nearly anything we find by artists of olden times. 

The homespun industry was crude in its beginning but because of Mrs. Vanderbilt's generosity, one of the teachers was sent to Scotland, and in fact all through the countries where the finest homespuns were made in Europe, and even looms were purchased and shipped to Biltmore to enable the Biltmore boys and girls to turn out as fine or better homespuns than have ever been made elsewhere. The handling of the vegetable dyes, selection of the wool and everything that is needed to produce the very best product was covered by Mrs. Vanderbilt's determination to do the thing right. Probably few people know that the Industry in the next year will consume from twelve to fifteen thousand pounds of wool, and it is not possible to estimate the thousands upon thousands of pound of wool that has been bought at good prices from the sheep raisers in the mountains in this vicinity, in the past 15 year. Then the dyes with which the wool is dyed are bought here in the mountains so far as is possible, and our own boys not only do all the wood carving and spinning and weaving, but they even build the looms on which all the homespuns are made. 

It is probably more thoroughly a home enterprise -- from the black walnut that is used by the wood carvers and the wool that is used by the spinners to the men and women themselves -- than is any enterprise established anywhere in this section , and not enough credit can be given to Mrs. Vanderbilt's kindness in establishing so widely known and so useful an industry as this has become. Nobody but a person of her wealth could have done it. Little did she dream that the school idea started some thirteen years ago in one of the houses in the village would ever grow to its present proportions, but it has grown until it has become a manufacturing enterprise that is so far beyond its early beginnings as to make it quite impossible for a woman in Mrs. Vanderbilt's position to continue to handle it. 

First it outgrew the house in the village, and part of it was moved over into the old electric light building where the current was formerly made for the Biltmore Estate. More and more modern wood carving machinery -- saws, planers, shapers, lathes, etc. -- was added, until today there are some nineteen electric motors required to drive the wood carving machinery which is used to prepare the wood before it reaches the hands of the carvers. 

The homespun industry grew until they were compelled to turn the building which formerly housed Mr. Vanderbilt's private car, into a spinning and weaving shop, and today there are wool carding machines, beaters, and all that it takes to work the wool over into yarns ready for the handlooms to convert it into the finest Biltmore homespun. There are eight looms in operation at the present time, and so famous have the homespuns become that the present equipment is quite unable to meet the demands. 

Realizing that under all the circumstances the enterprise must be outgrowing Mrs. Vanderbilt's ability to handle it efficiently, and having felt for a long time that the products of these Industries possessed merit and high commercial value, I began negotiations some months ago looking toward the purchase of the entire enterprise. 

The management of the Industries will be under Mr. Arthur just as it has been at Biltmore, and the same men and women who have made the Industries what they are will simply be adopted into the big family of workers at Grove Park Inn, and in so far as we are able to give it, they will have a wider field in which to work and a bigger market to supply. 

It will be clear to most people that the Biltmore Industries, with their charm and handiwork, fit perfectly into our scheme here at Grove Park Inn. I have felt for years that just such a thing as this belonged here and have looked with longing eyes upon the wonderful work that Mrs. Vanderbilt had done and wished there would come a way some time that I could have the pleasure of tieing [sic] it to what we are trying to do here. Our well organized departments in the office, the shipping room, the sales desk, and all that, will simply add new life and energy to what they have already done, and I haven't the slightest fear but that in addition to keeping up all the educational features connected with the Industries, the demand can be doubled in a short time. I feel sure that if we could reach out to all the corners of the earth and tell the people about Grove Park Inn as we have done and in less than four years be turning away applications by the hundreds because we haven't room to accommodate them, we could tell the story of Biltmore homespuns and wood carving in a way that we will not be able to meet the demands even when we have doubled our capacity. There is the same quality in the Industries that we have always incorporated into our work at Grove Park Inn. 

Every element and characteristic of the Industries as they are today will be perpetuated just as Mrs. Vanderbilt has maintained them so far as is possible to do so. The name "Biltmore Estate Industries" will be changed by dropping the word "Estate" and we will know them as the "Biltmore Industries" and the fact that the enterprises have been moved from Biltmore village to Grove Park Inn and that they will occupy new and artistic modern buildings under slightly different surroundings, will not be permitted in any way to rob the Industries of the charm and sincerity that have made them what they are. The homespuns will be known as Biltmore homespuns and Mrs. Vanderbilt has very graciously consented to my carrying the statement in literature and elsewhere that these Industries were founded by her some sixteen years ago. 

The store in Biltmore village will be maintained and wood carving will be carried on there as usual. In every way possible, disassociating the Industries from the place of their birth will be avoided. 

Everybody in Asheville should be proud of Biltmore village and grateful for what Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt have done for this whole section, and I am glad not to be so selfish as to be unwilling to give the name "Biltmore" all the publicity it can get from its connection with these wonderful Industries. 

I have purchased the enterprises in their entirety and am now operating them under the new ownership but will not be able to move them for some months -- surely not until after our busy season is over and suitable buildings have been erected for their home. We are putting on some extra forces of men, working nights, to try and catch up with the orders, and the Biltmore Industries will be so conducted under their changed ownership as to sustain the pride that has been felt during the years Mrs. Vanderbilt has been developing them. The same degree of honesty and sincerity will always be found in these products and I am printing this advertisement because I feel that any public enterprise like this deserves the confidence and assistance of our home people.  

       F. L. SEELY