Which estate in North Carolina is the largest privately owned house in the United States?

Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned house in the United States.

Built near Asheville, North Carolina, for George Washington Vanderbilt II, Biltmore House was constructed between 1889 and 1895. Architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the mansion in a French Renaissance style, while landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted planned the grounds. The house contains 250 rooms and remains one of the most prominent examples of Gilded Age residential architecture.

The property was conceived as a country estate rather than an ordinary urban residence. Its land included forests, farms, gardens, and extensive infrastructure. The Vanderbilt family opened parts of Biltmore to visitors in 1930, helping preserve the property and create a long-term operating model based on tourism and hospitality.

Biltmore is sometimes confused with Hearst Castle in California, another famous private estate. Hearst Castle is a major historic landmark, but Biltmore is the commonly cited record-holder for the largest privately owned house in the United States by floor area.