Debunking a Myth: Did Architect James Vester Miller’s Mother Work for Julia Wolfe in the Old Kentucky Home Boardinghouse?
It has been suggested that Louisa Miller, the mother of Asheville’s famous brick mason James Vester Miller, worked for Thomas Wolfe’s mother Julia in the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse. James Miller was a prominent African American brick mason whose work can be found throughout the downtown, including the Asheville Municipal Building (home of the Fire and Police Departments), Asheville’s St. Matthias Episcopal Church, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and the Asheville YMI building. Born into slavery in 1860 (some sources say 1858), Miller moved with his mother Louisa and two siblings from Rutherfordton, NC to Asheville following emancipation so his mother could find work. Family history implies she worked as a cook in a boardinghouse.
We know, as it was told in Look Homeward, Angel, and in the recollections of Thomas Wolfe’s sister Mabel, Julia was a very difficult employer. She paid poor wages as part of her penny-pinching ways, had an overall reputation for frugality, and she was often critical of the quality and timeliness of the work of her part-time help. As a result, we can imagine there was frequent turnover of employees at the boardinghouse over many years of operations.
Available census records for Asheville, 1870, 1880, and 1900 fail to enumerate Louisa Miller, however the 1896 Asheville City Directory lists her living on S. Beaumont Street, only a few doors down from James and his family. Her occupation is described as laundress.
Records reveal James Miller married in 1881 and had at least six children by 1900. According to a small obituary in the Asheville Gazette, Louisa passed in early April 1902. Julia Wolfe didn’t purchase the Old Kentucky Home until 1906, so if Louisa did work in the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse, it would not have been for Julia Wolfe. Since the house on Spruce Street had become a boardinghouse around 1890, perhaps it was an earlier proprietress. We did, however, discover a legitimate connection between the Wolfe family and James V. Miller.
Local lore describes Miller growing up around construction sites where he did odd jobs for numerous contractors. He quickly developed the skills that would lead to his success as a brick mason. Perhaps one of the builders who employed him was Julia’s father Thomas Casey Westall. It’s unknown when Miller started his own company, Miller & Sons Construction, but by the early 1900s it was an established business, appearing in the 1906–07 Asheville City Directory, and specializing in commercial buildings and churches. The city directory reveals the office for Miller & Sons Construction listed at 22 S. Court Square. This is the location of the Wolfe Building and Thomas Wolfe’s father’s monument shop. W. O. Wolfe rented out office spaces in the building.
