Her 10-year marriage to British aristocrat John Cecil concluded, Cornelia Vanderbilt left the 250-room Asheville, North Carolina mansion, never to return.
Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
A black and white portrait of a woman looking off-camera - Cornelia Vanderbilt | Blue Ridge Country
This photos of Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil is undated, but was likely taken around the time of her 1924 marriage to John Cecil.
More than likely, you’re familiar with George W. Vanderbilt’s imprint on Asheville, North Carolina.
After a trip to Asheville with his mother in 1888, he quickly scooped up 125,000 acres and hired the best artisans and environmental experts in the world to create his massive Biltmore Estate.
He named it Biltmore from the Dutch town of his ancestors named Bildt and the English word more, which refers to rolling, mountainous countryside. It remains America’s largest private residence, with 250 rooms, including a palatial dining room, a library with more than 23,000 volumes, a bowling alley, a 70,000-gallon indoor swimming pool and servants’ quarters.
But have you heard about the pink-haired heiress who left the estate in the hands of her estranged husband to follow her Bohemian whims?
Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, the only child of George and Edith Vanderbilt, made life choices that weren’t always in alignment with her prominent status as heiress of her father’s fortune, leading to a “hush hush” attitude about her chosen path post-Biltmore.
Cornelia was born on August 22, 1900, raised at Biltmore House and traveled widely with her parents. She was a teenager when her father died in March 1914 following complications from an appendectomy. When she turned 21, she received an annuity of $2 million; at age twenty-five, she received the principal sum of $50 million, bequeathed to her by her father.
And a year earlier, on April 29, 1924, in a lavish wedding in All Souls Cathedral in Biltmore Village, Cornelia exchanged vows with British aristocrat John Francis Amherst Cecil (sess-ul), who was 10 years older. They invited 500 people to witness the nuptials, and increased the invitation list to 2,500 for a reception at Biltmore House.
The couple had two sons, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil (born in 1925) and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil (born in 1928), and also helped stimulate the economy during the Great Depression by opening Biltmore House to paying guests in 1930. Admission was $2. Two years later, the Biltmore Company was formed to manage the estate.
In 1934, Cornelia and John divorced. She then fell off the public radar, but she never returned to the estate again. How does one simply walk away from the magnificent house and gardens created by her father and leave it in the hands of her estranged spouse?
After the divorce, John Cecil spent most of his time at Biltmore until his death in 1954.
Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
A black and white photo of Cornelia Vanderbilt and John Cecil walking out of a wedding chapel | Blue Ridge Country
Cornelia Vanderbilt and John Cecil wed on April 29, 1924, at All Souls Cathedral in Biltmore Village.
It’s also curious that she married Cecil after news reports had claimed that she would only be willing to marry an American. Cecil hailed from the English town of Norfolk. He focused on history and international law at the New College of Oxford University and ultimately became a member of the British Diplomatic Corps. He served in several countries—Egypt, Spain and Czechoslovakia—before arriving in Washington, D.C., where he was named the first secretary at the British embassy. It was in Washington where he met Cornelia and began a romance with her.
There are details about Cornelia’s motivation to flee Asheville that are not discernable from the scant information available, but it could be that she needed the opportunity to freely pursue her own individual passions instead of just resting on the achievements of her family name.
Or maybe she was searching for the type of happiness that money cannot buy. Or maybe she was just bored. An article titled “Cornelia Vanderbilt’s Peculiar Love Problem,” published in 1938 by American Weekly, implies that Cecil’s interest in the estate left Cornelia twiddling her thumbs.
The article notes: “Before marriage her days had been so full of the detail of managing the estate that she had hardly had time to think; but with Mr. Cecil taking over the cows and employees the usual outlet for her energy was abruptly cut off.”
Newspaper reports of the time reveal hints of her Bohemian spirit.
Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
A black and white portrait of a man standing in a street in a suit with a mustache - John Cecil | Blue Ridge Country
This portrait of John Francis Amherst Cecil is dated 1923.
She apparently left Biltmore to study art in New York City while living in Greenwich Village. One newspaper report noted: “She dyed her hair a bright pink, explaining that that was her proper color aura according to the findings of numerology. Also for numerology’s sake, she changed her name to Nilcha.”
After a time in New York City, she traveled to Europe and reportedly engaged in a lengthy, complicated romance with a Swiss artist named Guy Baer.
After her relationship with Baer ended, she enjoyed the interest of Captain Vivian Francis Bulkeley-Johnson. He was 58 and she was 49 when they tied the knot on October 13, 1949, in a brief ceremony at the Kensington registry office in London, with only four witnesses present.
Their entry into married life was a stark contrast to her all-the-frills first wedding to John Cecil. They reportedly lived a quiet life—she went by Mary—until his death on February 14, 1968.
In 1972, she married her third husband, William “Bill” Goodsir. This time, she had fallen for a younger man. She was 26 years his senior.
Cornelia died on February 7, 1976, at age 75, in England, just four years into her last marriage.
Want to Read More? This story is excerpted and adapted from Marla Hardee Milling’s new book, “Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville.” Its 12 chapters contain many fascinating stories from in and around Asheville. arcadiapublishing.com