Take a guided walking tour of the eleven sites on the Christmount Christian Assembly property that comprise the Guastavino Estate “Rhododendron,” located in Black Mountain, NC. Get historical insight into this estate, which operated from the late 1800s into the early 1940s. This tour, conducted by local expert David Madden, includes the ruins of  the “Spanish Castle”- Guastavino’s home- and several of the kilns used by Guastavino for tile production.

Immigrating to the US in 1881, Spanish master builder Rafael Guastavino quickly changed the architectural landscape in America with his “cohesive construction” technique, a refinement of a centuries-old Mediterranean architectural method for spanning spaces with tile vaults. Guastavino Company vaults and domes can be seen across the nation at landmarks such as the Boston Public Library, Grand Central Station, and Ellis Island. In 1894, Guastavino was pulled south to design part of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. While in the area, he purchased tracts of land in Black Mountain to form his own grand estate, Rhododendron. Guastavino would live in Western North Carolina for the remainder of his life.