Welcome to breakfast at Biltmore.

At this table, George Vanderbilt, his wife Edith, and their daughter Cornelia might have welcomed you to an intimate meal.

In other rooms in the 175,000 square foot chateau, you would have attended formal dinners, browsed Vanderbilt’s 22,000-book library, or joined other guests for outdoor exercise and fresh air on the 8,000-acre grounds surrounded by 125,000 acres of conserved forest land.

Vanderbilt, grandson of the shipping and railroad tycoon, imagined and used this estate as a sort of private luxury hotel for friends and family. While a private residence on this scale is difficult even to fathom, let alone justify, I’m struck by how much people in past eras were simply together.

In this era of digital communication, accelerated by the pandemic, we often sit alone, communicating across the divide. While privacy and quiet time have advantages, I wonder whether we won’t pay a steep price in our physical and mental health over the coming generations.