{"nrhp_refnum":"71000572","name":"Wolfe, Thomas, House","other_names":["The Thomas Wolfe Memorial","The Old Kentucky Home"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"48 Spruce St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.59760786500004,"lon":-82.54513344999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-11-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1971-11-11","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large two-story frame house at 48 Spruce Street in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, known as \"The Old Kentucky Home.\" Thomas Wolfe's mother bought it in 1906 and ran it as a boarding house; it is now a museum.","why_significant":"The house was the setting of novelist Thomas Wolfe's boyhood, and his family and youth supplied material for much of his writing. Preserved as a memorial since his mother's death, it keeps its integrity to an unusual degree. It is described as a monument to Wolfe and to the environment that formed his character.","narrative":"This two-story frame house at 48 Spruce Street in Asheville has a gabled roof, clapboard siding, a two-story porch on two sides, and a bay window beside the front door. Julia Wolfe, mother of novelist Thomas Wolfe, bought it in 1906 when it had seventeen rooms and opened it as a boarding house called \"The Old Kentucky Home.\" In 1917 she added two rooms on the south side and three at the northwest corner, and no structural changes have been made since. Thomas Wolfe lived here until entering the University of North Carolina in 1916, and the house later formed part of the setting for his first novels. After his mother's death the surviving children set the house aside as a memorial, and Asheville took it over as a museum in 1949. Its furnishings are almost all Wolfe family items, and a small playhouse stands to the south. It was recognized for its close tie to a major American author's life and work.","period_of_significance":"1906-ca.1923","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Maintained in excellent condition and operated by the City of Asheville as a museum; open to visitors from May 1 to October 1.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:56.91738-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/7187/47718759/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/71000572_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000572/d43314fbd9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000572/d43314fbd9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Abe Ezekowitz","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Wolfe%27s_Home.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Abe Ezekowitz</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Wolfe%27s_Home.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718759","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7795278"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/wolfe-thomas-house-71000572/"}