History
The official name of Biltmore Village Inn is, the Samuel Harrison Reed House. It was constructed in 1892 by the eldest son of Joseph Reed, a captain in the Confederate Army, and his wife Katherine Miller Reed. The family had been in Buncombe County for several generations.
In 1872, Joseph Reed purchased a 1,260-acre plantation two miles south of Asheville, located between the two towns of Biltmore and South Biltmore. This plantation is known today as Biltmore Village. Along with building a new home for himself, he built up his land with ponds, saw mills, carding and grist mills. Joseph Reed was the first man in Western North Carolina to house and sell ice. He also owned a brickyard and meat market.
Samuel Reed was born in 1851. He earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1872. When his father died in 1884, Samuel Reed inherited a significant portion of the estate. He later married Jessie Wingate in 1873 and the couple had nine children, only four of whom lived beyond infancy.
Samuel Reed was the senior member of the law firm of Reed and Van Winkle. He sold a tract of land to George Washington Vanderbilt in 1888, which included 100 acres on the south side of the Swannanoa River (at Asheville Junction and Hendersonville Road). This tract incorporated the present Biltmore Village, but excluded the hilltop contiguous to the south of town where he built the house.
His son, Charles Wingate Reed, recalled that his father built the new house in Biltmore in the summer of 1892. According to Charles, he was only four or five months at the time his father built the new house.
The house was located at the crest of a knoll, which came to be known as Reed Hill. The hill had been cleared of any vegetation when the house was built, allowing a picturesque panorama of Biltmore Village and the Kenilworth Inn. Early photos of All Souls Episcopal Cathedral in the Village, illustrate the Reed House in the distance (likely painted in dark colors). Unfortunately, there are no improved quality photographs that remain today.
The Reed House was among the first in Asheville to be built with running water and a bathroom. The water was pumped from a well that utilized a large windmill to generate power for the pump. Servants’ quarters were erected about 100 feet behind the kitchen entrance. Early accounts say the servants’ dwelling still exists, which would mean the current cottage was the actual servants’ house. Next to these quarters was the carriage house (which was next to the well and windmill).
Samuel Reed was the first innkeeper of the house he was listed in the 1904-5. A city directory categorized him as the owner and proprietor of the Oaks Hotel. The Oaks is a large frame hostelry in the village of Victoria, between the current Biltmore Village and downtown Asheville.
Reed died in 1905. His wife died six months prior. Wingate Reed, then 12 years old, inherited the house. He was sent off to prep school, at which time the house was closed.
While Wingate Reed was away at the preparatory, his guardian created upstairs and downstairs apartments within the house. After Wingate Reed finished college, he got married and he & his wife moved back into the house in 1913. Their son, the only Reed born in the house, died in infancy.
After only a year, Reed later sold the house because he and his wife felt it was too much house and land for just the two of them. He sold the property (17 acres) to a development company.
The new owners John and Hepsibah Feezor sold off many lots around the house, including the servants’ quarters. They owned the house until 1946 and it changed ownership three times before being finally being purchased by the Stauffer family in 1948. The Stauffers owned the house until 1963. They modernized a bathroom downstairs and enclosed the rear second-story porch. According to their grandson, the house was surrounded by boxwoods. The boxwoods have been brought back to surround the house once again.
K.M. Abbot bought the house and divided it into apartments. It was appallingly unpreserved and abandoned for several years before being sold in 1973 to Marguerite Turcot. The Asheville Building Department began condemnation hearings when Mrs. Turcot purchased the house. After a long labored restoration, the house was honored with a designation as a County Landmark and placed on the National Register. Mrs. Turcot opened it as a seasonal Bed & Breakfast Inn. In 2000, she sold the house to a group that began a full restoration. After about a year of restoration, the house was sold to Ripley Hotch and Owen Sullivan. Hotch and Sullivan are experienced Inn owners, who completed the renovation and opened the Biltmore Village Inn in September, 2001.
In late 2006, the inn was sold to the partnership of Carmen Santiago and Rebecca Olliges, who undertook a complete redecoration of the inn and renovated the Honeymoon Cottage.
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