The Silversmith Cottage, Vanderbilt Road, Biltmore Forest, North Carolina
When it comes to your silver pieces, do you prefer them dapped (not dappled), waterfalled, or hammered? The silversmith who built this enchanting cottage and studio liked to design with plenty of decorative and whimsical choices.
It's obvious from his pitchers to his weathervane. Many of the cottage's original and charming 1927 details are still intact.
William Waldo Dodge, Jr. (1895-1971) settled in Asheville, North Carolina in the 1920's -- right as the town of Biltmore Forest was being created as an idealized European village, as I described last week.
{source/Mr. If It Were Mine}
In addition to silversmithing, Dodge was an architect who embraced fairytale Tudor and French Normandy style wholeheartedly.
When he designed the mansion below for William W. Knight in 1927, Edith Vanderbilt must have been delighted that his vision tied in so well with hers.
{source}
He designed his own cottage less than a mile away at the same time.
{source}
When the current owners bought the cottage as a vacation home in 2010, they set about turning it into a showplace.
They were able to keep some of the original leaded windows with their hand-crafted pulls.
They kept the spirit of the old place while making the silversmith's studio a little more polished.
{source}
a
{source}
What has been updated has been done with an eye to whimsy and to the past:
The cottage has one bedroom and two bathrooms in 1,439 square feet.
The undated photo below (and Mr. Dodge's hand-drawn business card) shows the front facade with climbing vines.
{source}
It has since been re-landscaped. That front hedge border was removed some time between 2019 and 2022.
If it were mine, I'd reinstate the vines, add arborvitae, widen the steps, and pop in little silver lanterns.
I think the front stone pathways could ultimately end up creating little moments like this:
{source}
It mirrors this sweet spot that's already set up behind the house:
The listing is here.
