The Wolfe Children’s Playhouse
The children’s playhouse at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial originally stood behind the family home at 92 Woodfin Street, about a block north of the Memorial. Thomas Wolfe’s sister Mabel asserted their father WO built the playhouse of pine lumber at a cost of $100. In Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe wrote that “it was a retreat of delight; its imprisoned air, stale and cool, was scented permanently with old pine boards, cased books, and dusty magazines.” The playhouse appears on the 1907 Sanborn Insurance map located at the northeast corner of the house. A boardwalk was built from the front of the main house to the doorway of the playhouse.
Slated for demolition, neither the Wolfe heirs nor the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association were able to purchase and save the original family home on Woodfin Street. It was subsequently razed in January 1955. The Memorial Association did however purchase the small white playhouse in October 1954. It was soon moved to the Memorial for preservation and use as an exhibit.
The October 31, 1954 Asheville Citizen noted, “Inside, Mrs. Wolfe placed a couch, a stove, and Wolfe bought a big blackboard for the children to write on. As a crowning touch, Mrs. Wolfe moved her old Estey organ into the annex.” In the article, Mabel recalled, “Tom loved to spend hour after hour in the playhouse reading his books. He used to jump from an upstairs window onto the playhouse roof and thence to the ground below.”
Visitors to the Memorial enjoy peeking inside the playhouse to see a small stove, sofa, bookshelf, and toys scattered around. These objects, although not original to the Wolfe family, recreate the family’s memory of the playhouse, and represent the time of Thomas Wolfe’s childhood. Objects include a chalkboard easel, lettered blocks, a Magic Lantern, a baseball and glove, an assortment of books, a small ship, and pieces of a toy train set.
