Keeping house: it takes up to 1,600 people to run the Biltmore Estate. You need a lot of help to hold back the hands of time.

• Author: Vora, Nirav
• Position: Picture This

Smoothing wrinkles from the lap of George Vanderbilt's luxury can be tedious. Whether it's cataloging tapestry tassels or applying eyeliner to animal trophies, the jobs required to maintain and operate the Biltmore Estate prove less is more.

Nobody lives in the 250-room, 175,000-square-foot mansion now, but it takes up to 1,600 employees to keep it and the other operations on the 8,000-acre estate running. When George, Edith and baby Cornelia lived there at the heel of the Gilded Age, it took only 438. These days, employees are occupied mainly with guarding America's largest privately owned home from change.

On a given day, a conservation technician cleans a white sphinx that sits on the entry gate to the Asheville landmark, checking for the blemishes of time that might alter the statue from its original state. On the lawns that surround the French Renaissance structure is another constant during the summer: mowing.

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Biltmore's kitchen garden grows vegetables such as lettuce, pumpkins and asparagus. Even in the winter--peak employment comes at Christmas--cabbage is grown for use in one of Biltmore's four restaurants. They call it the field-to-table program, says Ann Ashley, vice president of human resources. "The crew works very closely with our executive chefs, so they grow things chefs want in the restaurant."

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Biltmore's restaurants employ about 300, including executive chefs from top culinary schools. On the authentically preserved grounds, guests can have their cake and Edith, too: 120 horticulturists tend 250 acres of landscaped gardens, toiling to keep them looking as good as when she strolled through. In the winery, the French winemaster swirls a sample to test its bouquet. Many of the grapes are grown on the estate, which employs two labs to test its wine's quality.

In a former...