Biltmore Estate Commemorates Old Shiloh

Samuel Adul-Allah standing with the newly erected sign “Old Shiloh Road” on the Biltmore Estate.

The Biltmore Estate, built as a country retreat for George Vanderbilt and his family and now an internationally known tourist attraction in Asheville, is also the site of the original Shiloh community, an African American neighborhood south of Asheville. Now Vanderbilt’s heirs, who operate the Biltmore House, have erected a sign identifying the location of “Old Shiloh Road” on the estate.


After George Vanderbilt began buying up land for his country home,
Shiloh residents in 1888 and 1889 relocated to what is now called “New
Shiloh” on the east side of Hendersonville Road. The recognition of “Old
Shiloh” was prompted in part by Samuel Abdul-Allah, an Asheville
activist. He is the great-grandson of Sam Barnes, an Old Shiloh resident
and noted landscape and horticulture contractor. Barnes designed and
installed many of the elegant residential landscapes in Biltmore Forest
and worked as a manual laborer on the golf course of the Biltmore Forest
Country Club.