Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Slovenia mushroom foraging
Slovenia • 6 days, 5 nights
Forest to Table in Alpine Slovenia
from
Central Asia yurt night stars
Uzbekistan • 15 days, 14 nights
Central Asia Road Trip: Backroads & Bazaars
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Tripe is fried to a crisp.
L’Osteria della Trippa
Pizza al taglio is done right here.
Fratelli Trecca
Dune view.
Cadiz Dunes Wilderness Area
Aluviharaya Rock Cave Temple
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Tripe is fried to a crisp.
L’Osteria della Trippa
Pizza al taglio is done right here.
Fratelli Trecca
View of the full general store from the second floor.
MoonPie General Store
A slice of cake is the perfect coda to a meal at Piatto Romano.
Piatto Romano
Crunchy and supremely satisfying, suppli might be the ultimate street food snack.
Supplizio
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
You don’t need to go to Turkey to see hundreds of hot air balloons rising.
Dear Atlas: Where Can I Find the Most Unusual Festivals in the U.S.?
about 3 hours ago
Located in Indianola, Mississippi, Club Ebony hosted performances by blues legends like B.B. King.
How Club Ebony Helped Keep the Blues Alive in the Jim Crow South
about 3 hours ago
Our journey begins in Texas—more specifically in Big Bend National Park.
The Atlas Obscura (Audio) Guide to the National Parks
1 day ago
A 16,000-square foot greenhouse in downtown Toronto has rooms dedicated to a range of climates stocked with ecosystem-appropriate plants, flowers, and animals.
10 Unexpected Places Where Creativity Shines in Toronto
1 day ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States North Carolina Asheville Thomas Wolfe Memorial

Thomas Wolfe Memorial

An early life spent in this "Old Kentucky Home" inspired the writings of North Carolina's most famous novelist.

Asheville, North Carolina

Added By
Carissa Pfeiffer
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Thomas Wolfe Memorial   Abe Ezekowitz
Thomas Wolfe Memorial   Abe Ezekowitz
Thomas Wolfe Memorial   Warren LeMay
Building facade, November 2019.   carissapffffft / Atlas Obscura User
The Wolfe House with the novel it inspired.   carissapffffft / Atlas Obscura User
Thomas Wolfe Memorial   Stilfehler
Kitchen   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Kitchen   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
W.O.’s bedroom   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
W.O.’s room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Sitting/music room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Boarding room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Living area   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Dining area   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Additional dining space.   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Julia’s room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Thomas Wolfe Memorial   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
In the sitting/music room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Boarding room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Boarding room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Boarding room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Julia’s room   PushingUpDaisies / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

"Dixieland was a big cheaply constructed frame house of eighteen or twenty drafty high-ceilinged rooms: it had a rambling, unplanned, gabular appearance, and was painted a dirty yellow."

Those words so poignantly penned by novelist Thomas Wolfe described his childhood home in his autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The novel featured a coming of age tale tinged by the grief Wolfe experienced at the house. Most tragically, the death of his older brother, who fell victim to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. 

The house referred to as "Dixieland" in the novel was actually known around the neighborhood as the "The Old Kentucky Home." Wolfe's mother Julia purchased it in 1906. She took a then-six-year-old Wolfe and moved down the street into the boardinghouse, leaving the rest of the family two blocks away at their family home. Julia rented the rooms for $1 a day. And although Thomas lived there he never had his own room, often sharing a room with a boarder. In 1918 Thomas's older brother Ben died of the Spanish flu in one of the rooms. The years that followed would become pivotal in shaping Wolfe's first novel.

When Look Homeward, Angel was published, it became an international bestseller. To this day, the novel has never gone out of print and writers such as Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradbury, and Philip Roth have credited the book and Wolfe as influences. Although Wolfe fictionalized the name of his hometown, the novel's brutally honest (and very thinly veiled) portrayal of the places and characters around Asheville caused outrage. Wolfe didn't return to his hometown for eight years after the novel's release. 

Visitors to the historic boardinghouse can explore the same rooms that Wolfe described with unparalleled accuracy, still preserved in their historic state. A visitor's center resides just across the backyard, and boasts a rendition of Wolfe's later apartment inside the Chelsea Hotel. The home's contents are original to the family. Ninety-five percent of the items in the home belonged to the family as the house was sold from the family to a historical society.

Thomas Wolfe passed away at age 37 from what our tour guide stated was meningeal tuberculosis. He is buried along with his family a couple of miles away at Riverside Cemetery. 

Related Tags

Houses Museums Authors Literature Memorials Homes

Know Before You Go

The Thomas Wolfe Memorial is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. House tours are offered for $5 per person at half past each hour, with the last tour of the day taking place at 4:30 p.m. Allow 1 hour for the tour. The visitor's center and exhibits are free to visit. There are discounts for students and groups. 

Community Contributors

Added By

carissapffffft

Edited By

PushingUpDaisies, Sydney Rose, jonathancarey, blimpcaptain

  • PushingUpDaisies
  • Sydney Rose
  • jonathancarey
  • blimpcaptain

Published

November 25, 2019

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://wolfememorial.com
Thomas Wolfe Memorial
52 N Market St
Asheville, North Carolina, 28801
United States
35.597503, -82.551341
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Moogseum

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Flat Iron Sculpture

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Asheville

Asheville

North Carolina

Places 19
Stories 6

Nearby Places

Moogseum

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Flat Iron Sculpture

Asheville, North Carolina

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Asheville

Asheville

North Carolina

Places 19
Stories 6

Related Places

  • The Karen Blixen Museum in Nairobi.

    Nairobi, Kenya

    Karen Blixen Museum

    The farmhouse owned by the Danish author who wrote "Out of Africa" is now a museum honoring her legacy.

  • The Orchard House.

    Concord, Massachusetts

    Orchard House

    Louisa May Alcott based “Little Women” on her experiences growing up in this house with her sisters.

  • Brontë Parsonage Museum

    Haworth, England

    Brontë Parsonage Museum

    Some of the most enduring novels in English literature were written within the walls of this Georgian-era building.

  • Interior of the house

    Paris, France

    Maison de Victor Hugo

    A museum dedicated to one of Paris’s most famous residents, tucked into a corner of one of the city’s most famous squares.

  • Inside the apartment

    Stockholm, Sweden

    Astrid Lindgrens Hem (Astrid Lindgren's House)

    The apartment where Pippi Longstocking came to life.

  • Springfield, Illinois

    Vachel Lindsay Home

    The poet’s boyhood home is now dedicated to celebrating his life and legacy.

  • The house where H.G. Wells lived.

    Sandgate, England

    House of H.G. Wells

    In a small Kentish seaside stands the former home of one of the greatest science-fiction writers.

  • The gates of Nobuko Yoshiya’s house-turned-museum.

    Kamakura, Japan

    Yoshiya Nobuko Memorial Museum

    The former home of queer novelist Yoshiya Nobuko memorializes her contributions to modern-day manga.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.