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So I am using Google Earth (gives nice 3D views with buildings with height, very cool) and Google Maps to try and peruse Asheville virtually, but if someone could be so kind as to toss me a bone to figure out where the touristy/historic/trendy downtown Asheville is I would be appreciative. Maybe a cross street, or a link to a zoomed in google maps view.
Biltmore Village pretends to be historic. It's the land where the workers used to be for the Biltmore Estate. There is a mediocre effort to keep buildings in that area within the architecture parameters of the time. But my god, there was no McDonald's when the Biltmore Estate was built -- so take it all with a LARGE grain of salt.
In fact, take the Biltmore Estate itself with a grain of salt. If you ask the workers, they'll tell how much they've fibbed the inside. For example, there are tapestries which have the wrong label on them, there are dining rooms which are in what used to be washrooms, and on and on.
Biltmore Village pretends to be historic. It's the land where the workers used to be for the Biltmore Estate. There is a mediocre effort to keep buildings in that area within the architecture parameters of the time. But my god, there was no McDonald's when the Biltmore Estate was built -- so take it all with a LARGE grain of salt.
In fact, take the Biltmore Estate itself with a grain of salt. If you ask the workers, they'll tell how much they've fibbed the inside. For example, there are tapestries which have the wrong label on them, there are dining rooms which are in what used to be washrooms, and on and on.
Historic preservation isn't about keeping buildings exactly as they were when first built. In the case of BV its called adaptive reuse. No one expects them to be used for the same purpose as when they were built.
And to think that over the course of 120 years some rooms at Biltmore might have changed use. Shocking!!
Historic preservation isn't about keeping buildings exactly as they were when first built. In the case of BV its called adaptive reuse. No one expects them to be used for the same purpose as when they were built.
And to think that over the course of 120 years some rooms at Biltmore might have changed use. Shocking!!
It's one thing if a room "might have changed use"; it's another thing to pretend that there was a "servants' dining hall" when the room was more likely a laundry room with pipes running along the ceiling.
I believe the topic of this thread is "downtown" so I don't think Biltmore House and Village are even relevant to the thread.
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