Hours of Operation
Tuesday – Saturday:
9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday & Monday: CLOSED
Closed State Holidays
Admission
House tours are offered daily
at half past each hour
Last tour leaves at 4:30 pm
Adult – $5 + tax
Military & Seniors (65+) – $4 + tax
Youth (3–17) – $1 + tax
2 & Under – Free
K-12 Groups – Guided tours remain free for public, private, and registered home schools
Group tours by reservation.
Whether you’ve read Thomas Wolfe or not, guests still appreciate learning about Asheville in the 1910s, the importance of the boardinghouse in tourism and society, and how Wolfe’s own experiences deeply influenced his writing.
The Thomas Wolfe Memorial encompasses two buildings- our visitor center and the historic “Old Kentucky Home” boardinghouse.
What to Expect
Guests of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial have a few options during their visit, including a 22-minute film on the life and career of Thomas Wolfe in our auditorium, our self-guided exhibit hall that touches on a brief history of the growth of Asheville, the broader Wolfe family, and Thomas’ life, and our guided tour of the historic boardinghouse. If you would like to experience it all, plan for about an hour and a half on site.
*Limited parking is available at the Memorial’s visitor center, but is first come, first served. There is metered, street parking available on Market, and public parking garages within a few blocks of the Memorial located on College Street and Rankin Avenue.
Guided Tours
Our guided tours are a hallmark of the Memorial as guests get to walk through rooms and see the very furnishings and artifacts as Thomas would have seen them during his adolescence growing up inside its walls. Because the boardinghouse, its boarders, and his family served as such prominent characters in his debut novel Look Homeward, Angel, guests often feel like they are walking through the pages of his book as well.
Guided tours average 45 minutes. Groups of ten or more are asked to call in advance for reservations, but otherwise our tours are first come, first serve. Our film starts every half hour, and our exhibit hall is available anytime during our business hours. Both of these offerings are free. The admission fee applies only to the historic house tour.
Peek Inside the
Old Kentucky Home
“[W.O.] would stride through the wide chill hall of Dixieland, bursting in upon Eliza, and two or three helpers, busy preparing the morning meal for the hungry boarders who rocked energetically upon the porch.”
Look Homeward, Angel
“[Eliza] had added a large sleeping porch upstairs, tacked on two rooms, a bath and a hallway on one side, and extended a hallway, adding three bedrooms, two baths, and a water-closet, on the other. Downstairs she had widened the veranda, put in a large sun-parlor under the sleeping porch, knocked out the archway in the dining-room, which she prepared to use as a big bedroom in the slack season, scooped out a small pantry in which the family was to eat, and added a tiny room beside the kitchen for her own occupancy”
Look Homeward, Angel
“Eugene stumbled to the other side of the bed and fell upon his knees. He began to pray. He did not believe in God, nor in Heaven or Hell, but he was afraid they might be true. He did not believe in angels with soft faces and bright wings, but he believed in the dark spirits that hovered above the heads of lonely men. He did not believe in devils or angels, but he believed in Ben’s bright demon to whom he had seen him speak so many time. Eugene did not believe in these things, but he was afraid they might be true.”
Look Homeward, Angel
Peek Inside the
Visitor Center
Self-Guided Tour
Our self-guided exhibit hall in our Visitor Center is free of charge. Inside, guests learn more about Asheville’s growth and development at the turn of the 20th century, the Wolfe Family with personal mementos and artifacts, as well as tools, marble samples, and pieces from his father’s stonecutting shop. Guests also wander through the chronology of Thomas Wolfe’s life and career and view many of his belongings and furnishings taken from his apartments in New York City after his death.
