Black Mountain

A grey spring day at Lake Tomahawk, Mar 22, 2024

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The heart of the boarding house

 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Museum is tucked in between hotels and the theatre in downtown Asheville.
 The original boarding house of his mother, Julia, still stands. After a fire a few years ago which damaged mainly just two rooms, it has been restored as it was when last people were sleeping there for $1 a night including 2 meals...what now would be considered a B&B.




I admit I didn't listed to the recorded voices. You can go there and do it yourself!


 We enjoyed the porch with so many rockers!

 The dining room has period furnishings, but most were not the original ones from the house, having been damaged in the fire.

 When ice was delivered, people would put this card in the window to order how many pounds they wanted.
The coal burning stove in the kitchen. Not all that big when maybe 20-30 people were going to eat twice a day from this kitchen.  Thomas Wolfe was highly critical of the food being served in his book.

 Looking past the center table, one of our tour-guests peaked into Mrs. Wolfe's bedroom
 The other stove was gas.
 Julia Wolfe's own bedroom was right off the kitchen. 

 She had the sewing machine in her room.
I imagine this pie safe was kept full of groceries...and perhaps some pies.

2 comments:

  1. Boarding was much more common back in the day. One et of grandparents did it at one time.

    ReplyDelete

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