iMajor and Mrs. James H. Dooley transformed rough fields and pastures into a showplace many American millionaires were creating during the Gilded Age.

Biltmore, the opulent 250-room French Renaissance chateau, nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, was the vision of George Washington Vanderbilt, carried out by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt. Construction began in 1889 and the opulent estate, with grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was opened on Christmas Eve in 1895 to family and friends.

William Seward and Eliza (Lila) Osgood Vanderbilt Webb were married in 1881 and acquired some 32 area farms from 1886 until 1902 to create their 3,800 agricultural estate, Shelburne Farm on Lake Champlain.

Long stretches of beach, farmland, towns and main streets with century old homes, and estates hidden behind hedges.