Arcadia Publishing Around Biltmore Village History Book

More than a century ago, George W. Vanderbilt transformed the sleepy crossroads settlement known as Best or Asheville Junction, on the Swannanoa River into an idyllic model village near the entrance to his vast Biltmore Estate near Asheville. The initial concepts and design for Biltmore Village were the collaborative efforts of Vanderbilt, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The finished village included more than 40 residences, a business district, a church, a school and a hospital. It was centrally located among the developing towns of Victoria, Kenilworth, South Biltmore and later Biltmore Forest. It characterized the elegance and prosperity of the building booms that flourished in the south Asheville area before and after both world wars.