In Asheville, North Carolina, you don't have to be one to live like one.
Keeping up with the Vanderbilts

Over the last hundred years, the reasons for visiting Asheville haven't changed much: towering maples and graceful dogwoods, the fresh air of North Carolina's Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, the peace and quiet that survives best in high altitudes, and, of course, Biltmore — still the largest private home in America, the star of A&E documentaries and even its own annual Christmas special. There's no reason to wait till summer's high season, though, to pay a call on George Vanderbilt's 1895 "chateau." In fact, spring's the time to go, when Asheville's rhododendrons are opening into bright scarlet flowers, and the gold petals on the forsythia glow from the side of the road.

You could spend a full day touring Biltmore's 8,000-acre grounds, which include a winery, three restaurants, plenty of gift shops, and — set to open in the summer of 2000 — a deluxe hotel fit for a Vanderbilt. Then there's the house itself: 250 rooms of Gothic tracery, carved oak paneling, and red velvet chairs. It's an exhaustive display of Beaux-Arts opulence, and exhausting, too — so much so that by the time you're done, you'll probably be ready for a rest as well as a change of style.

Splendor On High
Of course, if you're looking for a period Asheville experience, one obvious choice is the famous Grove Park Inn, which is not a mansion at all but a mountain retreat-turned-resort built in 1913 by Edwin Grove, a pharmacist who made millions on an anti-malaria tonic he concocted. You couldn't find a hotel less like the baronial Biltmore. From the outside, Grove Park's main lodge resembles an oversized Arts and Crafts-style bungalow: massive gray boulders beneath a low-hanging clay tile roof that looks like a hat slipping down over a giant's eyes.

Despite the checking-in-and-out chaos you'd expect in the lobby of a 510-room resort, sitting on a couch facing one of the Great Hall's two immense fireplaces creates a come-in-from-the-cold feeling as warming as a cup of hot chocolate. Upstairs, in the 150 original rooms, you'll find authentic Mission furniture (Grove wanted pieces made to last, not to impress), including straight-armed chairs and sturdy armoires. If your room's on the fourth floor, you're near the Palm Court (a new-money version of Biltmore's glass-ceilinged Garden Room), the most fitting place to settle in with a copy of The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald's old room (Number 441) is directly overhead.

Most of Grove Park's rooms, though, are in the two new wings, and the key cards that unlock those doors sum up what you can expect: modern, modern, modern. Though large, double rooms here are done in a bland generic green, burgundy, and gold color scheme. Still, if you favor views, you'll love the huge windows overlooking gardens of white daffodils and pale pink azaleas, an 18-hole golf course, two tennis courts, two pools, and a feel-good spa set to open in the spring of 2000 — hmm, about the time the Biltmore's new hotel opens its doors (290 Macon Ave.;             828-252-2711       or             800-438-5800      ; $125-$550).

Built a half-mile down the road from Grove Park in 1909, the Albemarle Inn is as elegant and uncluttered as its hospitality is down-to-earth. There's no path to the front door of this 11-room Greek Revival mansion, so instead of making a grand entrance between its towering Corinthian columns, you come from the side, through an old screen door — as folks around here always did.

 The room I was in, Juliet's Chamber ($180), was romantic and refreshingly free of the usual B&B knickknacks. The queen-sized bed was made up in dark shades of burgundy, and a lone doily was draped over a Queen Anne side table. The bathroom, like most in the inn, had a clawfoot tub; unlike the other bathrooms, though, mine had a balcony. For something bright and dreamy, book the Sunrise Suite ($200), which has a private sunporch. Then there's Bartok's Retreat ($125), where, it's said, inspired by the "concert of the birds" outside, the Hungarian pianist composed his Asheville Concerto in 1943. You can spend a night here in a graceful queen-sized sleigh bed; it's best to be on the short side, though — the shower ceiling tops out just shy of six feet.

The dining room opens at 7:30 a.m. so you can grab an early cup of coffee and first dibs on the paper (the owners, native New Yorkers, get the Times daily). Breakfast is casual; antique chairs are spread among tables for two and four, so you don't have to eat with strangers. This time of year, you might opt to eat on the enclosed sunporch, where you can hear the "concert of the birds" playing (86 Edgemont Rd.;             800-621-7435      ; $110 -$235).

Federal Hill
Though Biltmore was without a doubt the choicest address in Asheville at the turn of the century, Richmond Hill (now The Richmond Hill Inn) easily took second place — granted, a very distant second. Still, this Queen Anne mansion built for Asheville resident and congressman Richmond Pearson is a rambling pile of gables, porches, and bay windows. (Pearson and George Vanderbilt used to ring each other regularly — not because they were best friends but because they were the only people in town with telephones.)

A valet meets your car and hands you the keys to your room, which is where you — privately — check into this 36-room inn. Given the Victorian exterior, you might expect rooms with lace curtains and mantel scarves, but instead they're done in simple Federal style. My room, the Theodore Roosevelt Suite (Pearson hobnobbed with the famous), had a four-poster walnut bed draped in a George Washington spread (those white cotton covers dotted with tiny pom-poms), brass floor lamps, and a Duncan Phyfe-inspired nightstand. But the biggest treat of all was going back to my room after turndown to find flames burning in the gas fireplace.

On your way to breakfast at the Garden Pavilion dining room, stroll through the 48 acres of rolling grounds (a mile-long walking trail opens this spring), where the croquet players should be coming out of winter hibernation just about now. There are times, in fact — especially in croquet season — when Richmond Hill may seem more like a country club than a hotel, but one of its great charms is that the staff makes you feel like a longtime member (87 Richmond Hill Dr.;             888-742-4558      ; $145-$450).

Time Bandits
From Biltmore Avenue, you can just make out the turrets and gables of the nine-room Cedar Crest Inn. This 1891 Queen Anne mansion once belonged to William Breese, a New York businessman and friend of George Vanderbilt, and Cedar Crest feels almost as ornate as the Biltmore. Staying in the main house here is certainly the closest you'll get in Asheville to stepping back in time. Open the solid walnut front doors (surrounded by Tiffany stained-glass windows), and step into Asheville's most Victorian-looking parlor, with hand-carved grooves on the pilasters and mantel scarves draped over the marble fireplace. Dark-wood-paneled ceilings are illuminated by hurricane lamps, and paintings are framed in gold.

A grand staircase leads to nine small chambers, many with canopied brass beds, lace curtains, and turn-of-the-century memorabilia collected by inn keepers Jack and Barbara McEwan. Most of the bathrooms have clawfoot tubs wrapped in eyelet shower curtains. Sound like too much? Try one of two guest cottages ($135 and $225) in which Victorian decor takes a backseat to a sort of beach-house motif: old-fashioned sofas, mismatched wing chairs, even an Arts-and-Crafts armoire (and TVs). The cottage bathrooms are more modern, except for those clawfoot tubs you just can't escape.

Everyone goes to the main house for breakfast, a buffet of baked goods (French-toast casserole, pastries, croissants). In the small, wood-paneled dining room, Queen Anne chairs ring tables set in groups of four and six. Still, now's the perfect time of year to sneak a plate onto the sunporch, trading the sounds of a busy dining room for the tranquillity that brought everyone to Asheville in the first place (674 Biltmore Ave.;             828-252-1389      ; $135-$200).