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"To serve unnoticed and to work unseen." - Eleanor Vance |
| The history of "Biltmore Estate Industries" is a
subsection of the history of
Biltmore
Industries; specifically, it refers to the time between the
founding of the Biltmore Estate Industries in 1901 and the purchase of the
Industries by Fred L. Seely in 1917.
Biltmore Estate Industries was founded by Charlotte Yale and Eleanor Vance. They strongly believed in social reform and believed that by providing the local population with a trade, they could improve the lives of talented local men and women . To this end, they sought to develop a craft education program in what is today known as Biltmore Village, the small community that grew out of the Vanderbilt Estate construction and labor community. At first, two women encouraged the development of homespun and wool creations in their Biltmore work-rooms, inspired by a trip to Scotland a few years previous. They returned from that trip with the first model of the loom that was eventually mass-produced for the Biltmore Estate Industries and later for the Biltmore Industries, under the direction of Fred L. Seely. Much of the work of Vance and Yale was subsidized by the Vanderbilt family, specifically George W. Vanderbilt and Edith Vanderbilt, who were strong supporters of mountain art and craft. The original Biltmore Industries shop, located in what is today Biltmore Village, no longer exists. In 1917 Fred L. Seely purchased the flourishing craft industries from Edith Vanderbilt (George had died in 1914) and built a new facility for the industries next to the Grove Park Inn on Sunset Mountain in north Asheville. The Grove Park Inn is a well-known hotel in north Asheville, originally developed by E.W. Grove, and constructed by his son-in-law, Fred L. Seely. For a discussion of Fred L. Seely's purchase of the Biltmore Estate Industries, see "Why I Purchased the Biltmore Estate Industries," by Fred L. Seely.
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