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Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon HE Covington Jr.

Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon By HE Covington Jr.

Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon by HE Covington Jr.


$10.66
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Summary

George Vanderbilt's Gilded Age Biltmore Estate, near Asheville, North Carolina, is the nation's largest private residence. However, it was once a terrible financial drain--banker David Rockefeller called it a white elephant--and no one gave its future a chance. Lady on the Hill is the remarkable account of how Vanderbilt's grandson, William A.

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Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon Summary

Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon by HE Covington Jr.

What William Cecil has accomplished at Biltmore Estate is one of the great preservation success stories of all time. He has set a high standard for what all historic house museums strive for: magnificently preserved buildings and grounds, engaging interpretation, and--perhaps most challenging of all--economic self-sufficiency. It is no surprise that Biltmore Estate is widely recognized as one of America's finest places to visit. --Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Biltmore is a glorious national historic landmark that, through creative vision and entrepreneurial management, preserves and provides insight into a way of life in the early 1900s. Bill is the imaginative and multifaceted leader who has built this great monument to enrich his community. George and I admire his dedication and success. --George and Abby Rockefeller O'Neill Bill Cecil and his team at Biltmore Estate have sure proved that they know how to build a successful business. They did it the old-fashioned way: embrace a bold idea that others said could not be done and--through commitment, determination, and hard work--bring it to life. Their achievement against the odds is inspiring, and their vision and perseverance are valuable lessons to us all. --Don Logan, Chairman, Media & Communications Group, Time Warner If George Vanderbilt did nothing more than engage the two most prominent and storied designers of their time, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, to carry out his vision of a European estate in the southern Appalachians, he would have created an American icon. The beauty of the method by which the estate was executed and, even today, the meticulous attention to detail, in the presentation and care of the estate by William Cecil, have brought history to life. --Gary J. Walters, Chief Usher, The White House

Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon Reviews

Set amid thousands of lushly landscaped acres in the North Carolina mountains, the Biltmore estate is a 250-room Gilded Age mansion stuffed to the rafters with objets d'art. Writing a very authorized business history rather than an architectural appreciation, journalist Covington celebrates the estate's transformation from quasifeudal folly to lucrative tourist mecca. Built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, who played lord of the manor to hundreds of tenant farmers and servants, the estate passed in the 1960s to his grandson William Cecil, whose tight-fisted budgets, canny marketing initiatives and rapt attention to customer service turned it into a profitable museum of robber-baron privilege, selling more tickets than Colonial Williamsburg. The author's sycophantic account of this not unduly exciting saga is mainly a tribute to Cecil, who wrote the afterword. Covington defends the Biltmore owner's model of private, for-profit historical preservation against charges of commercialism leveled by nonprofit preservationists, repeats his complaints about inheritance taxes, extols his entrepreneurial daring, salutes his Biltmore restoration projects (surpassed what many had seen anywhere) and raves about customer satisfaction reports... comparable to those enjoyed by a five-star resort. This anodyne hospitality-industry success story will find a place in the Biltmore gift shop, but probably nowhere else. (Mar.) (Publishers Weekly, January 2, 2006)

About HE Covington Jr.

Howard E. Covington, Jr., formerly an award-winning journalist, has been writing history and biography, much of it related to North Carolina, for nearly twenty years. At the Charlotte (NC) Observer, he was the creator and lead reporter for a multi-part series on occupational health hazards in the textile industry that won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and more than a dozen other national reporting awards, including the grand prize of the Robert R. Kennedy journalism awards. His fifteen books include a biography of former North Carolina governor and U.S. Senator Terry Sanford and a three- generation biography of the Hill family of Durham, N.C., which has been cited by the N.C. Literary and Historical Society as the best nonfiction work by a North Carolina writer in 2004. He lives in Greensboro, NC.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Acknowledgments. Chapter One. Celebrating a Centennial. Chapter Two. George Vanderbilt's Dream. Chapter Three. Edith Vanderbilt. Chapter Four. Judge Adams. Chapter Five. The National Gallery's Wartime Vault. Chapter Six. A Curiosity, or A Treasure. Chapter Seven. The Airport Fight. Chapter Eight. Homecoming. Chapter Nine. Mr. C. Chapter Ten. The Music Room. Chapter Eleven. Presentation vs. Preservation. Chapter Twelve. Voice in the Wilderness. Chapter Thirteen. 'Be Reasonable - Do It My Way'. Chapter Fourteen. Biltmore by The Bottle. Chapter Fifteen. Putting It Right. Chapter Sixteen. Lady on the Hill. Afterword. Notes. Index.

Additional information

CIN0471758183G
9780471758181
0471758183
Lady on the Hill - How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon by HE Covington Jr.
Used - Good
Hardback
John Wiley & Sons Inc
20060421
352
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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