George Vanderbilt's widow sold most of Biltmore's land to the United States, and his grandsons split the house from the dairy

George Washington Vanderbilt II, a grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, built Biltmore House near Asheville, North Carolina. His estate reached about 125,000 acres. He began selling land to the federal government, partly because of income tax and upkeep costs. He died on 6 March 1914, about a week after an emergency appendectomy. His daughter Cornelia was 13. His widow Edith completed the sale, and about 86,700 acres became the core of Pisgah National Forest. Cornelia married John Francis Amherst Cecil, a British diplomat's son, on 29 April 1924. In March 1930, during the Depression, they opened the house to paying visitors at the city's request. In 1942 the National Gallery of Art stored 62 paintings and 17 sculptures there. Cornelia divorced Cecil in 1934, left Biltmore and never returned. After her death in 1976 her elder son George took the dairy, then the more profitable business, as Biltmore Farms, and the younger son William took the house^†. William built the estate into a tourist business with a winery and died on 31 October 2017. In 2026 The Biltmore Company is still owned by the family, led by William A. V. Cecil Jr., on about 8,000 acres. Hurricane Helene closed it in September 2024; it reopened that November.