1890 Queen Anne brick home of the real-life Trail of the Lonesome Pine heroine, haunted by a candle-carrying woman in white
22 Jerome St, Big Stone Gap, VA 24219
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Museum admission is low-cost or donation-based; check with the Folk Art Center for current hours and fees.
Access
Limited Access
Historic home with steps; interior access may be limited
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · National Register of Historic Places (1973) · Inspiration for The Trail of the Lonesome Pine · Queen Anne Architecture — Southwest Virginia · John Fox Jr. Literary Connection
Jerome Hill Duff constructed the residence at what is now 22 Jerome Street in Big Stone Gap in 1890, the same year that ambitious coal and iron investors — including John Fox Jr.'s brothers — were pouring into Wise County expecting an industrial boom. Duff had moved his family to Big Stone Gap in 1881 and had established The Central Hotel across the street, the town's first hotel. His new Queen Anne-style brick dwelling was among the more substantial private residences in the young town.
June Morris, a local girl, boarded at the Duff house while attending school in Big Stone Gap. She became the inspiration for the character June Tolliver in John Fox Jr.'s 1908 bestselling novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine — the first American novel to sell a million copies. Fox, who lived and wrote just a few hundred feet away on Shawnee Avenue, set much of the novel's action in the town and the surrounding Powell Valley landscape.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1973 (NRHP reference no. 73002067). It operates today as the June Tolliver House & Folk Art Center, with exhibits focused on Fox, the novel, and the broader context of Appalachian regional culture. The center also hosts productions of the Trail of the Lonesome Pine outdoor drama.
Sources
The ghost tradition at the June Tolliver House centers on a woman in white carrying a lit candle, seen both inside the building and in the windows looking out. Local lore holds that a newspaper photographer captured her image in a photograph that subsequently circulated in the area, though the original publication has not been independently verified.
Witnesses have also reported paintings shifting position on the walls without apparent cause and a figure visible in upstairs windows when the house is unoccupied. No specific identity is attached to the apparition in any of the accounts encountered — she is described as a female presence in period dress, and connection to June Morris herself is implied rather than stated.
The June Tolliver House does not commercially market itself as a haunted venue. The legends circulate primarily through regional ghost-lore compilations and local oral tradition.
Notable Entities
Tour the 1890 Queen Anne brick home where June Morris — the real-life prototype for John Fox Jr.'s fictional heroine June Tolliver — lived as a boarding student. The house is now a museum and folk art center with exhibits on Fox, the novel, and Appalachian regional history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Big Stone Gap, VA
The original four-room cottage at 118 Shawnee Ave E was built around 1890 for Fox's older brothers, who came to Big Stone Gap as coal-and-iron investors. John Fox Jr. moved in and expanded the home to 20 rooms over his lifetime; he lived and wrote here from 1890 until his death in 1919. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and has operated as a public museum since 1970.
Gloucester, VA
Rosewell was begun in 1725 by Mann Page I and completed by his son Mann Page II around 1738. The three-story brick mansion, roughly 12,000 square feet, was widely considered the largest and finest house of colonial America, rivaling the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. The Page family, one of Virginia's First Families, held it for over a century before it passed out of the family; the mansion burned in 1916, leaving the dramatic brick ruins that survive today.
Muskegon, MI
The Hackley House (1887) and Hume House (1888) were built as adjoining residences for lumber business partners Charles Hackley and Thomas Hume on West Webster Avenue in Muskegon. Both houses were the primary residences of their respective families and witnessed the deaths of multiple family members within their walls. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.