Boardinghouse Guests: A Wedding Day
Multiple entries appear on page 13 in the guest register for the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse in September 1908. Many names are from Anderson and Spartanburg, South Carolina, as well as important people from Asheville such as Rev. and Mrs. R.F. Campbell, Dr. and Mrs. E.B. Glenn, and Dr. and Mrs. G.W. Purefoy. There could be only one explanation. Said to be one of the largest events of the season with 150 invited guests, at five o’clock in the evening on Sept 16, 1908 at 48 Spruce Street was the wedding of Effie Nelson Wolfe and Frederick Wardlaw Gambrell. Thomas Wolfe wrote in Look Homeward, Angel “She had promised herself to a young South Carolinian, who was connected rather vaguely with the grocery trade.”
It was described as an unusually pretty affair. A local florist filled the entire first floor of the house with flowers, golden rod, nasturtiums, and clematis. Wolfe remembered “the wedding was arranged on a lavish scale, and took place in the big dining-room of the house.” Told in the Asheville Citizen Times, “the golden rod decorations were effective and an aisle formed of palms led to an improvised floral alter, erected in an alcove. A bell of English Ivy was suspended immediately in front of the altar, under which the ceremony was performed by Dr. R F Campbell.” Prior to the entrance of the bridal party the brides’ aunt, Grace Westall, sang “The Evening Star” by Richard Wagner.
Shedding white rose petals as they went, the procession was led by three young flower-maidens, Thelma Penland, Claudia Osborne, and Margaret Israel. They wore frocks of white organdie, generously trimmed with valenciennes with large rosettes of green baby ribbon on their left shoulders. The bridesmaids were cousin Miss Myrtle Westall and friend Miss Martha Alice Rowes of Elk Mountain. Detailed in the society column of the newspaper, both carried bouquets of white carnations with asparagus ferns and both wore white directoire style hats. Myrtle’s gown was batiste trimmed with Irish crochet lace with a sash of green. Martha’s gown was of crepe de chine, en princess,with sash of messaline. The maid of honor was the bride’s sister Mabel Wolfe. She was also adorned in a princess gown of white chiffon, trimmed with baby Irish lace a sash of green and a large white hat. Her large bouquet was pink rosebuds and asparagus ferns with streams of messaline. The bride wore a princess gown of cream chiffon-voile with a Dutch filet lace yoke. Filet lace was used profusely, relieved by silk tassels and fringe. Her hat of cream felt was trimmed with white plumes, and the bride carried a shower of bridal roses.
Thomas Wolfe summed up the wedding of the fictional Daisy Gant noting “weeks of frantic preparation, dress fittings, rehearsals, the hysteria …the final splendor of the last two days — the arriving gifts, the house, unnaturally cheerful with rich carpets and flowers, the perilous moment when their lives joined, the big packed dining-room, the droning interminable Scotch voice of the Presbyterian minister.”
