Makes Vanderbilt Pay
Nashville Globe – February 1, 1907
Pg. 3
Negro at Last Sells His Old-Cabin on the Biltmore Estate — After years of negotiation, George W. Vanderbilt today purchased from a negro named Collins a cabin and a six-acre lot, says a special to the New York Times, January 26, which have long spoiled the landscape effects around Biltmore House.
Collins purchased his lot and cabin twenty years ago for $200. When Mr. Vanderbilt decided to build Biltmore House landscape gardeners and engineers laid out an approach through Collins property. Mr. Vanderbilt offered Collins a large sum for the place. Collins’ s lawyers told him to double the price. Mr. Vanderbilt refused to pay, but later agreed to Collins’s terms. Collins’s lawyers told him to double again, and this performance was repeated several times.
The approach to Biltmore House was built around Collins’s property. Collins still held out for a big sum. Just how he finally brought to terms has not been announced.
