52 North Market Street
Asheville, NC 28801
Hours: April through October: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; November through March: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 1 p.m.-4 p.m., Sunday
Admission: Adults, $1; students, 50ยข
Telephone: (828) 253-8304
This 29-room Queen Anne boarding house, known as The Old Kentucky Home, was Thomas Wolfe’s home from 1906 to 1922. Built in 1883, the two-story white frame house has a gabled roof and several porches.
A beautiful home, once adorned with decorative touches, was stripped to the bare necessities by Wolfe’s mother, Julia. When she bought the house and turned it into a boarding house, she created plain, utilitarian rooms that would be easy to furnish and clean. Wolfe accused the house of smelling of "raw wood, cheap varnish and flimsy, rough plaster."
The city enjoyed a booming tourism business, and Wolfe’s mother always had a full house, meaning that Wolfe never slept in one room long enough to call it his own. Look Homeward Angel, Wolfe's first novel, is based on his experiences growing up in this house.
Although, The Old Kentucky Home went through a major renovation in 1916 and a suffered a fire in 1998, it remains much the same as it was when Wolfe lived there. Literary tourists can see many of the Wolfe's furnishings, photographs, and other memorabilia.
The Visitor Center, which opened in 1996, maintains a display of many items from Wolfe’s final New York apartment. Here Wolfe fans also enjoy watching a documentary film of Wolfe's life and writing and browsing the gift shop.
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)
Six-feet-six-inches tall, Thomas Wolfe was a big man in stature as well as emotions and desires. As a novelist, Wolfe earned a large audience of admirers even though critics accused him of not knowing when to stop writing and of destroying any suspense that would draw a reader into a story.
Wolfe was born on October 3, 1900, in Asheville, North Carolina, where he grew up in a boarding house surrounded by a diverse group of strangers. Neighbors did not realize how deeply the strain of his family life affected young Wolfe. His mother was busy with the boarders and had little time to spend with Wolfe. His father had refused to move into the boarding house and often burdened Wolfe with complaints and self-pity stemming from the separation from his family. Wolfe learned to cope with his feelings with ambivalence.
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