News Release

JULY 24, 2003

“LOST” ARTIFACTS EMERGE DURING
THOMAS WOLFE MEMORIAL RESTORATION

Several unique artifacts were recently uncovered during restoration of the writer Thomas Wolfe’s childhood home in Asheville necessitated by a disastrous 1998 fire. Many over a century old and some in near mint condition, these items were apparently lost by past occupants of the Victorian home, formerly a boarding house run by Thomas Wolfe’s mother Julia. These discoveries provide a brief glimpse into the lives of people who lived in or visited the house long ago.

The found items include the following:


• An old political campaign button, vintage late 19th or early 20th century. The button was found during removal of baseboard trim from an upstairs bedroom. It is approximately ¾-inch in diameter and features the photograph of an unknown political candidate encircled with red and blue stars. Historians currently are trying to identify the candidate, which Wolfe House staff members hope will help them more fully interpret life at the boardinghouse in Wolfe’s day.
• A torn fragment of an “Old Kentucky Home” (as the boardinghouse was once known) business card. The fragment, found behind the remains of the dining room mantelpiece, miraculously survived the 1998 fire’s intense heat. Still legible on the card is the partial wording “Old Kentucky Home” and the words “Healthiest Location/Rates Reasonable.” While running the boardinghouse, Julia Wolfe would make young Tom hand these cards out to tourists at the Asheville train station and elsewhere to solicit trade for the business. In Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe wrote of Eugene Gant doing the same for his mother Eliza. In the book, Eliza called after Eugene, “‘Spruce up, boy! Spruce up! Make folks think you're somebody.’ And she gave him a pocketful of business cards which bore the inscription, Spend Your Summers At Dixieland.... and the admonition, ‘You've got to help me drum up trade if we're to live boy...’”
• Four coins have also been found in various locations throughout the house, including an 1887 Liberty Head Nickel. This coin was discovered beneath the floorboards of an upstairs bedroom added between 1885 and 1889. It could have fallen from the pocket of a carpenter working on one of the additions to the house or perhaps was dropped by a careless boarder living there before Julia Wolfe bought the boardinghouse (1906). The U.S. Mint struck these nickels between 1883 and 1912. The coin features the head of Lady Liberty encircled with stars on one side and the Roman numeral “V” with the word “cents” within a wreath on the reverse. The coin is in near mint condition.

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