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Care In Restoring Structure, Artifacts Adds New Dimension ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 19, 2004) – The Thomas Wolfe Memorial, the boyhood home memorialized by the famed writer in his classic novel, Look Homeward, Angel, will celebrate its Grand Reopening May 28-31, 2004, after a two-year restoration project to repair damage from a devastating 1998 fire. During the four-day reopening gala, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site will host a rededication ceremony, living history tours, a formal banquet, a performance of a Wolfe play, guided trolley tours of Wolfe’s Asheville, and a special Authors Evening featuring several prominent Southern writers. “We are thrilled to welcome visitors back to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, an important landmark of 20th century American literature as well as a jewel in the crown of North Carolina historic sites,” said Lisbeth C. Evans, secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. “We owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of those who helped to bring this long-anticipated moment to fruition, from the firefighters who saved the house and most of its historic artifacts, to the countless individuals who contributed to the restoration fund.” The centerpiece of the event, the house itself, was heavily damaged on July 24, 1998, when a fire started by an arsonist ripped through the structure. Rooms and furnishings throughout the house sustained various degrees of damage from fire, water, and smoke, as well as from the impact of the roof collapsing into the 1883 structure. But firefighters and volunteers were able to rescue three-quarters of the 800 artifacts in the house at the time of the fire. Those relics and the structure itself were the focus of a $2.4 million museum-quality restoration project that culminated with the completion of the interior in December 2003 and the reopening of the site to tour groups in spring of 2004. Visitors returning to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial will see a house that more closely resembles the place Wolfe knew in 1916, the year the writer left Asheville to study at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Called the Old Kentucky Home and operated as a boardinghouse by Wolfe’s mother Julia, the rambling 29-room structure has been repainted yellow to match the color of the house during that period. Interior color schemes, roofing, wall treatments, and landscaping also were completed with an eye toward recreating the house remembered by Wolfe and fictionalized as “Dixieland” in Look Homeward, Angel. Historians consulted on the project also chose 1916 because it was the year Julia Wolfe made the last substantial changes to the boardinghouse, adding 11 rooms to bring the total to 29 rooms and approximately 6,000 square feet. Thomas Wolfe lived in the house for 10 years beginning in 1906, the year his mother bought the building and started to rent rooms to boarders. To enhance the period feel, some artifacts from later years that were previously displayed in the house, such as Wolfe’s Harvard diploma, have been relocated to the exhibit hall in the Visitor’s Center next to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. The center, which was completed in 1996 and has remained open throughout the restoration, also features a display of art inspired by Wolfe’s writings and an audiovisual program depicting the writer’s life and works. The Thomas Wolfe Memorial is part of the State Historic Sites division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. It is located at 52 North Market Street in Asheville. Directions: From I-240 East, take the Merrimon Ave. exit (5A). Go straight through the stop light onto Market Street. Go one-half block; the visitor center is on the left. From I-240 West, take the Merrimon Ave. exit (5A) and turn left at the stop light onto Merrimon Avenue. Turn left again at the stop light at the top of the hill onto Woodfin Street. Go one block and turn right on Market, proceed one-half block and the visitor center is on the left. The site operates on two seasonal schedules: April–October the site is open Tuesday-Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m-5 p.m., and closed Monday. November–March the site is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m.-4 pm., and closed Monday. Admission is $1 for adults and $0.50 for students. Contact
Site Manager Steve Hill at (828) 253-8304 or steve@wolfememorial.com
for additional information on the grand reopening. |
