Buckspring Cabin

Following the completion of his Biltmore Estate in 1895, George W. Vanderbilt constructed his prized Buckspring Lodge as a family retreat on the western edge of his 125,000-acre estate near the peak of iconic Mount Pisgah. The original trail that lead up to the lodge from Asheville through Hominy Valley passed what was then known as the Stony Fork Meeting House that served both as a Methodist Church and schoolhouse. According to research from Walt Weber with the Carolina Mountain Club, Vanderbilt who passed the building regularly on his way to the lodge eventually purchased it for fifty dollars in 1910 and had the entire building moved to the Buckspring complex up the mountain where it was newly dubbed the Honeymoon Cabin. Legend has it that Vanderbilt built a new meeting house in place of the cabin for the Hominy Valley community.

When the Blue Ridge Parkway was built along this portion of the Pisgah National Forest in 1961, the Buckspring Lodge complex was completely razed; visitors can still find a marker along milepost 407-408 of the Parkway for the original site. Seeking to preserve the legacy of the lodge, Vanderbilt’s grandson and Biltmore Farms Chairman George H.V. Cecil disassembled the Honeymoon Cabin and relocated it first to a vacation home near Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, then to his Biltmore Forest residence where it served as a garden house.

In 2004, the cabin was moved to its existing location in The Ramble along Dingle Creek. Just outside its front door, a stone with the initials G.W.V. believed to be carved by Vanderbilt himself decorates the landscape alongside native plantings. The cabin is available for residents as a quaint gathering space and has been decorated with period furniture and photos of the original Buckspring Lodge.

Special thanks to Walt Weber with the Carolina Mountain Club for sharing his historical research of the Buckspring Cabin.