George Vanderbilt’s wealth could build castles and purchase mountains, but it couldn’t secure one small family cabin and a 5-acre lot. Or so the story went.
An 1895 article published in papers across the country described the lavish grand opening of the new Biltmore Estate, with its 200-room mansion situated on thousands of acres, the verdant botanical gardens and the “small army” of servants ready to attend to guests’ every need. The article also noted the “greatest curiosity of the estate … the shanty of a colored man who refused to sell his nine acres to the millionaire.”
The article claimed that Vanderbilt had offered the man, Charles Collins, far more than the property was worth, but “the colored man was wise. ‘Say, boss,’ he remarked, ‘if that’s worth $900 to you, I guess it’s worth $10,000 to me.’” Vanderbilt relented, according to the article, and “since then the colored man has had possum and sweet potatoes on his table three times a day.”
Not for sale
Collins was a Black man living in Shiloh, a community of formerly enslaved people located near the growing Biltmore Estate. While the other residents had agreed to relocate the community on the condition that Vanderbilt provide them with support for a new church and school, Collins was among the few landowners who refused to sell, gaining him national fame as the owner of “The House Vanderbilt Could Not Buy.”…