Note:

The drawing to which this note is attached is a suggestion for laying out Biltmore Village.

The village is to be situated at a junction of several public roads, including two public railroads. An entrance to the approach of Biltmore estate will open from the village, but it is not advised that the main characteristic expression of the village as a whole should be that simply of a dependency of the private estate. Rather the effect should be that the village is obviously occupied by a community, the members of which are engaged, independently of the owner of the estate, in various kinds of business, the pursuit of which requires that they should be in intimate intercourse, commercially and otherwise, with people at a distance from the village. Hence, for instance, the main streets of the village should appear to have been laid out with a view to convenience of such intercourse. They should not seem to have been laid out simply or mainly as accessories of the entrance to the estate.

The station at the junction of the two public railways being assumed to be the centre of business, convenience requires that there should be an open place connected with it, and that there should be shops, stores and offices opening upon this place. It is desirable however, that the village should have a social centre other than this business centre; a centre further removed from the noise of trains and the bustle of traffic. The principal features of this social [724]

centre should be a church and a school-house, but opportunity should also be left for later introducing other public buildings that may in time prove to be needed, such, for example, as may come to be required for a public hall or a public library. It is desirable that the position of this social centre, as it may be manifested, for example, by a church tower, shall be apparent to strangers on stepping out from the station. An open view between the station and the church thus becomes desirable, and this view may best be kept open by laying out a street, and this street may appropriately be the central street of the village. Taking such an association and relation of the business centre and the social centre to be established, the village will be conveniently balanced on a line between the two, as indicated in the study.

The study shows no particulars except such as are necessary for illustrating general principles. Details can be introduced in an advanced study if the general principles are approved. Looking at this primary study, it may be observed that the first street crossing the railroad on the right of the station corresponds with the existing “Hendersonville Road” which is legally fixed. [725]The next street on the right is laid out to follow nearly parallel with the base of the wooded hill along which the temporary railway of the estate is now laid. Space is left between this street and the base of the hill for a series of small houses with gardens in their rear. Corresponding streets are planned to be laid out on the left of the mid-line of the plan, with convenient cross streets. Eight blocks are thus formed, to be divided into building lots having some variety of size and suitable, some for shops, and some for dwellings. The lot lines are omitted in order to avoid complicating this preliminary proposition.

From the station views are arranged to be kept open, one through a street in front of it to the church; another, diagonally on the right, to the gate lodge of the approach road of the estate. This lateral street runs clear of the brick works, which it would be well to have divided from it by a high wall, but room is left for a tier of dwellings between this street and the steep hillside opposite the brick works.

The streets are laid out favorably to good sewerage and drainage.

Space on the river bank is reserved for a public promenade, bath house and laundry should they be desired.