Last month my wife, Debbie, and I took a southward drive for a few days and landed in Asheville, North Carolina. Our goal, beyond a few days of relaxation, was to visit two famous homes. Asheville is the location of the Biltmore House and Gardens, as well as the Thomas Wolfe home, a home immortalized as "Dixieland" in his novel Look Homeward, Angel. Biltmore House, a sprawling 262-room chateau set within 8,000 acres, was completed in 1895 as a second home for George Vanderbilt, a member of the famous New York Vanderbilt family. These two homes represent two different worlds, yet one common hope. The residents of both houses never realized the hope sought within their walls—a hope common to all our homes and lives. It is a hope sought by all men and all women connected by the one blood of life from God, the Creator.
George Vanderbilt, like many a modern-day Solomon, built a lavish home complete with indoor conservatory, swimming pool and a banquet hall that could seat a squadron. Dozens of housekeepers, cooks, butlers and maids were required to keep the main house going, while many more hands kept up the grounds, gardens, forests and fields of the vast estate. An entire village sprang up outside the main gate just to accommodate the families that made a good living keeping up the estate. To visit this complex today is to see the lavish wealth of America's Gilded Age as it was transplanted to the southern Appalachian Mountains—at once both a display of raw wealth and a modest social experiment that has evolved and survived into the 21st century. Biltmore is still a private enterprise, owned and managed by its builder's heirs.
The Thomas Wolfe home is totally different. Set within the city of Asheville, it was a boarding home owned by Wolfe's mother, Julia. Young Tom spent his formative years in the home with his siblings and a constantly revolving cast of boarders who passed through the halls and rooms of this modest yellow clapboard home. Wolfe put fictional names to these people, but the lives and experiences are the common grist of every life. Wolfe's lyrical use of English has stood the test of time. He tells his life story within the larger search for meaning. In telling the story of his youth in a small southern town, he sought to discover who he was within the larger scheme of life beyond the town square. His book endures because it strikes universal themes and aspirations of all peoples at all times—a burning desire to know who we are and why we were born.
