The Last Castle

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The fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Bilt the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.The story of Bilt spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real life characters including F Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York s best known families She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Bilt House.Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000 square foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Bilt and secure the future of the region and her husband s legacy The Last Castle is the uniquely American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day. Free Read Kindle ePUB The Last Castle By Denise Kiernan – kino-fada.fr 3.5 StarsThe Last Castle is a book for serious history nerds like myself.I haven t read Denise Kiernan s other book The Girls of Atomic City, but after reading The Last Castle I ll be pushing it up my TBR list This book is a meticulously researched look at the building of the largest house of The Gilded Age, The Bilt.The Last Castle is a deep dive not only into the history of The Bilt but also the legendary family behind it, The Vanderbilt s Part family saga and part history of the ear 3.5 StarsThe Last Castle is a book for serious history nerds like myself.I haven t read Denise Kiernan s other book The Girls of Atomic City, but after reading The Last Castle I ll be pushing it up my TBR list This book is a meticulously researched look at the building of the largest house of The Gilded Age, The Bilt.The Last Castle is a deep dive not only into the history of The Bilt but also the legendary family behind it, The Vanderbilt s Part family saga and part history of the earl...The Last Castle is a phenomenal read When I went to school in North Carolina years ago, I visited Bilt House several times so as soon I learned about this book, I was dying to read it I am so glad it lived up to my expectations Denise Kiernan chronicles the tale of George Vanderbilt, the man who ultimately built the largest residence ever constructed in the United States 175,000 square feet on 125,000 acres of rugged wilderness Bilt House contains 250 rooms in all in... The Last Castle is an epic story about Bilt House envisioned and built by George Cornelius Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, during the Gilded Age with the history of Bilt Estate then spanning the Jazz Age, the Depression and two World Wars Vanderbilt knew when he first got off the train in Ashville, North Carolina and gazed at the Pisgah peaks nestled among the Blue Ridge Mountains and Smokey Mountains of southern Appalachia that this was the perfect location for his sp The Last Castle is an epic story about Bilt House envisioned and built by George Cornelius Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, during the Gilded Age with the history of Bilt Estate then spanning the Jazz Age, the Depression and two World Wars Vanderbilt knew when he first got off the train in Ashville, North Carolina and gazed at the Pisgah peaks nestled among the Blue Ridge Mountains and Smokey Mountains of southern Appalachia that this was the perfect location for his sprawling and massive estate Consulting architects, landscape architects, interior designers, wo...Denise Kiernan is back and she s better than ever Can t wait to share this one with you this FallDisappointingIf one judges a book solely on the basis of the epic amount of research that went into its writing this book might be judged a success The amount of detail presented is prodigious.But taken as a whole the book, to me at least, is flat, repetitive and boring George Vanderbilt is an unknown quantity His reasons for building a monstrously large and unwieldy house, far beyond his needs, are never explained The French chateaux upon which Bilt House was modelled had a raison d etr DisappointingIf one judges a book solely on the basis of the epic amount of research that went into its writing this book might be judged a success The amount of detail presented is prodigious.But taken as a whole the book, to me at least, is flat, repetitive a...Emblematic of the Vanderbilt family s cycle from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations well, maybe shirtsleeves to Anderson Cooper in three generations , the estate at Bilt was meant to be a semi feudal estate, with European style managed forests, dairies and local crafts Instead, although it made an indelible...Half the pleasure in life comes from learning to choose between things William Osgood FieldThe great Bilt Estate which many consider an American castle was the vision of George Vanderbilt and continued by his wife, Edith While the design and grounds changed a bit through the years one thing did not and that was their dream of the area being self sustaining The village or later town that grew up beside it and where Edith created a cottage industry to keep the dream alive.The history of Bilt is so closely messed with what was happening in the rest of the country and abroad The great Bilt Estate which many consider an American castle wa...I am giving this book a 3 star rating To me that means it was a good book, nothing special but worth the price paid I read some of the reviews of other GR members and it appears that some were rather disappointed in this book for a variety of reasons I guess I can understand that feeling as I too was initially disappointed I have visited Bilt a couple of times but my last visit was nearly 20 years ago and curiosity got the better of me so I Googled the site and discovered that things hav I am giving this book a 3 star rating To me that means it was a good book, nothing special but worth the price paid I read some of the reviews of other GR members and it appears that some were rather disappointed in this book for a variety of reasons I guess I can understand that feeling as I too was initially disappointed I have visited Bilt a couple of times but my last visit was nearly 20 years ago and curiosity got the better of me so I Googled the site and discovered that things have changed considerably since my last visit I think tickets on my last visit were 35 person and now they are 65 75 Some changes are easier to accept t...The author did not appear to have enough material about the Vanderbilt family to write a book, so latched on to everything that happened in North Carolina around this time period I wouldn t complain if this had been billed as a history of North Carolina, but a lot of the side stories had no connection to Bilt or the Vanderbilts other than it happened nearby The first half of the book was pretty good, but the second half after Ge...

The Last Castle
  • 21 March 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 400 pages
  • 1476794049
  • Denise Kiernan
  • The Last Castle