Thomas Wolfe Memorial (Old Kentucky Home)
This rambling Victorian boarding house, now a North Carolina State Historic Site, was run by Julia Wolfe, mother of novelist Thomas Wolfe, who immortalized it as 'Dixieland' in his 1929 novel 'Look Homeward, Angel.' During the 1918 influenza epidemic, Thomas's older brother Ben died of the flu in an upstairs bedroom at age 26, a loss central to the novel; visitors often pause outside that room and report a chill or faint footsteps in the upper hallway. Local lore holds that Julia, who ran the house until her death in 1945, returned to it in spirit, and Wolfe himself, who died in 1938, has reportedly appeared in an upper window. Staff and guests describe the clatter of an old typewriter from empty upstairs rooms. The house is a regular stop on Asheville ghost tours and has hosted its own spooky-story events.
📍 52 North Market Street, Asheville, NC 28801, Asheville, NC · Get directions