WIN $100.00
FOOTBALL CONTEST
Page 10 And 11D
Section D
Ed. Note: “Autumn in the
mountains of Western North
Carolina this year will be just
as colorful and as long as
ever,” according to chief
ranger Howard Parr of the
Blue Ridge Parkway. Local
visitors to the mountains may
want to tour the 250-room
Biltmore Estate and look at
the numerous clocks there
which tell more than time.
Meandering
George Vanderbilt's
250-room Victorian home, it
feels as though time stopped
in 1895. Time, however, at
Biltmore Estate progresses
bl
through
THE RIGHT TIME—Biltmore Estate workers adjust the
hands of the massive Howard Company clock atop the
gracefully, the estate, and its courtyard area to a Dutch
timepieces, taking the cen- grandfather clock and
tury in stride. English balloon and bracket
When Vanderbilt purchas- clocks inside Biltmore House.
ed Renoirs and Chippendales, As varied as the clocks on
Sheratons and Sargents for the estate may be, one
his French renaissance coun- characteristic is common
try home in Asheville, he also among the majority of the
bought a variety of fine timepieces—amazingly, they
clocks—all shapes and sizes, still i time.
from several nationalities of One of the most fascinating
clockmakers and in a wide examples of the estate’s
range of styles. working clocks is the stable
The clocks at Biltmore ‘slave system” clock, built
Estate range from the into the courtyard structure
massive Howard towardon the west side of the
clocks at the Biltmore Estate chateau. This ‘‘master’’
Winery and in the stable clock in the stable area is
electrically connected to the
clock system in the servants’
. quarters of the house. An
: electrical charge still signals
i the advance of the minute
hand of the master clock to
all the connected ‘‘slave’”
clocks—also moving those
connected clocks by one
minute.
The system is not unlike
alarm bells found in elemen-
tary schools. But to have in-
stalled the system in 1895,
when electricity in a
250-room home was con-
sidered quite a rarity, was
highly unusual.
The Howard Clock Com-
pany in Boston,
Massachusetts, also provided
Vanderbilt with the tower
clock now at the winery. A
larger version of the stable
master clock, the winery
clock was part of the original
dairy barn structure, design-
ed by architect Richard Mor-
ris Hunt, which now houses
the winery.
When the dairy was
remodeled, the clock
tower—which had once let
estate employees all across
the vast fields know the
time—became the heart of
the European-style winery.
The tower was braced struc-
turally underneath and the
clock was cleaned, its older
mechanisms replaced and a
steam whistle (which pro-
.{. Biltmore Estate Winery tower in Asheville. Originally
designed at the turn of the century to tell employees across
George Vanderbilt's working estate the time of day, the huge
clock still runs perfectly - and still tells estate staff the hour.
bably once informed estate
employees when it was time
to lunch or retire for the day)
was removed. The 90-pound
pendulum continues its
endless swing.
Werner Katzenberger,
woodcarver and furniture
repair supervisor at Biltmore
Estate, and Ted DeFose, who
has cared for the Biltmore
Estate clocks for decades,
found the Howard Company
still had records of Vander-
bilt’s purchase. So ordering
new parts for the winery
clock wasn’t much of a pro-
blem.
What was something of a
challenge, however, was con-
structing the mysteriously
missing fourth side of the
clock—clock faces existed on
the southern, eastern and
western sides of the tower,
but there was no clock face on
the north side.
Suspended by ropes and
working high above the
original dairy barn struc-
tures, Katzenberger,
DeFosse, worker Steve Led-
ford and Biltmore Estate’s
Alvord Nelson installed
ears, made new shafts to
rive the clock faces and
replaced the cable and clock
hands. Ray Stafford, a
machinist from Black Moun-
tain, reconstructed broken
and missing gear parts and
Asheville Steel Company
copies the clock tower face on
the north side of the winer’s
centerpiece. Now, once a
week, a Biltmore Estate
employee makes the climb up
into the clock tower to wind
the massive timepiece, the
time displayed to all corners
of the estate.
Inside Biltmore House are
fine examples of domestic
clocks—all of them from the
18th and 19th centuries. The
largest and perhaps the most
distinctive of the clocks in-
side the house is the J.
Numan grandfather—more
accurately called a floor
clock—in the entry hall. Built
about 1750, the mahogany
and walnut three-finial dom-
ed clock features a number of
tunes to chime the hours. The
clock also has a painted dial,
which not only displays the
time but also the signs of the
Time Stops For Visitors At Biltmore House
zodiac and phases of the by Louis Jouard in the mid
moon, information designed 18th century; a French
to be helpful to the porcelain asymmetrical
agriculturally oriented who mantle clock by the Parisian
would have planned plantings Michel, dated early 19th cen-
by the moon’s phases. tury; and an 18th century
Other examples of fine Dutch bookcase clock,
clocks include an Engin) powered bY a Fobepung
Robson balloon clock, built weight and including an
about 1785, cased in waltnut unusual alarm system.
and boxwood inlays; an According to the late
ebonized basket clock (the Charles Graf of Henderson-
‘“basket’’ refers to open ville, a member of the
metalwork on the case top), Wesern Carolinas chapter of
dated as a creation of London the National Association of
clockmaker Edmond Card in Watch and Clock Collectors,
the late 1600s; a gold-plated Vanderbilt put = only
French ormula clock made
Continued On Page 3D
SAVING TIME—Barney Lamar-conservator for Biltmore,
Campbell Smith Restorations, Inc., the restoration and con-
servation company owned by The Biltmore Company - finish-
ed restoration of a Baroque 18th Century clock, probably of
German origin. The clock is part of George Vanderbilt's col-
lection at Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina.
When it comes to homes, the spaces flow.
some people are still living in That's what the interior
the dark ages. designers at Armstrong did
The layout of tract homes in their update of an older col-
built from the Fifties to the onial. From a separate Kit-
Seventies is fairly standard. chen and formal dining room,
ypically there's a kitchen, a they created what they call a
dining room, a den or rec kitchen ‘‘suite’’, an open, sun-
room, three or four ny place with areas for cook-
bedrooms, a bathroom and a ing, dining, reading, and
powder room. relaxing. The only thing that
The problem is that now comes between the
[segmenting these smallish formerly separate rooms is a
homes into so many box-like two-way fireplace that’s as
rooms makes them seem ornamental as it is useful in
darker and more cramped chilly weather.
than necessary. It’s why so The emphasis in the
many people who buy one of remodeling is on casual
these homes today are elegance. The decor is
removing walls and letting distinctly ‘“‘country,” but far
from rustic.
French doors have been in-
stalled in the former dining
room. Beams crisscross the
ceiling, and new arched win-
dows add architectural in-
terest.
The modernization involv-
ed replacing the old kitchen
appliances. The quick-
cooking cener (nothing more,
really, than a microwave
oven and a plentiful supply of
paper plates, cups and
napkins) is ideal for fixing
easy meals or nighttime
snacks.
For preparing more am-
bitious meals, there’s a
custom-built cooking island
UNIFIES DECORATING MOTIF—Two-way fireplace divides living and dinging
areas from kitchen in this suite created from two smallish rooms.
in the center of the kitchen. It
has a full-size range and lots
of counter space but also con-
tains a surprising amount of
storage space, including
plexiglass bins for fruit and
vegetables. You can tell at a
lance when stock is running
ow.
The choice of floor covering
was a terra cotta brick pat-
tern, not for the kitchen only
but for the dining and living
areas as well. It’s important
in open-plan decorating to
have such ‘“Univiers’”’ to
draw together the various
parts of a room into a har-
monious whole.
The same effect can be
achieved with color. In this
case, all of the walls are
painted the same putty color
as the grout lines in the brick-
patterned floor.
The numerous wood fur-
niture pieces (tables, chairs,
hutch, cupboard) in the living
and dining areas are replicas
of 18th century country
classics. The natural light
wood harmonizes with the
sand color of the kitchen
countertops.
The upholstered sofa and
wing chairs in the living area
are covered in flowery chintz
fabrics whose background
color is white. All these
things—the predominantly
Casual Elegance Emphasized When Remodeling
white upholstery, light wood
furniture, glass-paned
French doors, big arched
windows, putty-colored
walls, sand-colored counter-
tops—make the kitchen suite
bright and cheerful, a
dramatic improvement from
the dark, gloomy atmosphere
that prevailed before the two
rooms were made one.
Finally, there are the ac-
cessories and little
decorating touches that com-
plete the project: an oriental
rug in the living area, hand-
carved wooden geese, woven
baskets, brass hurricane
lamps, ceramic animals, ruf-
fled lace curtains.
NEW LOOK—View of suite from living area to dining area. Crisscross beams, French
doors and arched windows add architectural interest. Note child-size wing chair.