No Social Distancing in a Boardinghouse
A common question on tours of the Old Kentucky Home is, did Thomas Wolfe contract Tuberculosis in his mother’s boardinghouse? It is entirely possible. During this time people generally ignored public-health campaigns to limit the spread of contagious diseases. Prohibitions, such as of spitting on the streets, were ignored, and individuals whose doctors recommended they be isolated from others in a sanitarium, chose to stay in boardinghouses. In a letter to his mother in 1920, Wolfe complained about suffering from a heavy cold with a rattling cough, pain to his right lung, and a spot of blood on his handkerchief. In Thomas Wolfe’s youth, TB was still the most feared disease throughout the world. At one time it was the leading cause of death in the United States. Known as “consumption” it was dubbed the White Plague. It has been conservatively estimated that, in the years around 1900, 450 Americans died of tuberculosis every day, over 165,000 annually. Often confused with influenza and pneumonia, accurate numbers are not available.
Classified ads purchased by Julia Wolfe for the Old Kentucky Home in Asheville newspapers under “Boarders Wanted” emphasize recently remodeled, neatly furnished rooms, attractive and sunny with a large lawn and shade trees. While other nearby boardinghouses noted “no sick taken.” In Look Homeward, Angel the presence of Tuberculosis is ominous. Old Doctor Fletcher reveals Eliza is spitting up blood every time she coughs. He declared “you’ve got consumption as sure as you live.” Cynthia, Thomas Wolfe’s father’s second wife, is a gaunt tubercular spinster. Before Julia buys the Old Kentucky Home, owner Reverend Meyers is haunted by “the spot in the hall where the consumptive had collapsed in a hemorrhage.” Eugene Gant’s Sunday school teacher is a tubercular, and his favorite teacher at North State Fitting School, Mrs. Leonard is as well, along with teacher Sister Sheba who arrived with “her consumptive husband…cadaver, flecked lightly on the lips with blood…” An unnamed boarder in Look Homeward, Angel is “a darkly handsome young woman, slightly tubercular.” Eugene Gant’s sister protests “In heaven’s name, mama,” Helen fumed, “why do you take them in? Can’t you see he’s got the bugs?” “Why, no-o,” said Eliza, pursing her lips. “He said he only had a little bronchial trouble.”
A close examination of Julia Wolfe’s guest register reveals some of the sick were taken in. Here are a few for example. On page 26 from September 1911, we find Mr. & Mrs. Norris from Rayville, La. Laura Peck Norris (1865–1916) died in August 1916 at a New Orleans sanitarium. On page 27, from October 1911 lists a Walter S. Norman (1865–1912) and his daughter Maybelle from Pensacola, Fl. He worked many years as a saloon keeper in Florida and came to Asheville to spend some time for his health. Walter did not find a cure in Asheville so he went to San Antonio for three months in early 1912. He died at his home in April 1912 from Tuberculosis. In May 1912, Mr. George L. Richards, his wife Matilda, and their daughter Avis arrived to spend the summer. While George, a successful photo-engraver in Chicago died of unknown causes in 1915 at age 65, Avis died in Arizona at age 34 from tuberculosis.
