A collection of fifteen vintage-photograph postcards depicting the way the town surrounding the entrance to Biltmore appeared more than a century ago. George W. Vanderbilt transformed the sleepy crossroads settlement known as Best, or Asheville Junction, on the Swannanoa River into an idyllic model village. The initial concepts and design for Biltmore Village were the collaborative efforts of Vanderbilt, architect Richard Morris Hunt, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The finished village included more than 40 residences, a business district, a church, a school, and a hospital. It characterized the elegance and prosperity of the building booms that flourished in the south Asheville area before and after both world wars.