What do you do when, while driving from a major airport to a remote meeting site for hubby’s business meetings, you pass a sign that reads “Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Presidential Library”?
You make plans to stop on your way back to the airport, of course!
So we did. And how glad we were that we made the time.
If you’ve been around here long, you know that my husband and I love touring historic buildings and history museums. And when the two coincide, it is, for us, pure bliss. Thus it was that we spent a lovely couple of hours in Staunton, Virginia.
The Presidential museum, housed next door to Wilson’s birthplace, is an informative museum covering Wilson’s life. It also included the restored 1919 Pierce-Arrow that was his Presidential Limousine as well as an exhibit highlighting life in the trenches of WWI.
Then we gathered for our tour of the house. And by “we gathered,” I mean the two of us. We were the only ones on a random Tuesday morning tour—which was awesome!
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in the Presbyterian Manse in Staunton, VA, where his father was the Presbyterian minister. President Wilson lived in that house only 17 months until his father took a church in Augusta, Georgia, but he visited his birthplace after he was elected President and considered himself a Virginian. As far as historical homes go, it was well-preserved and interesting. But the most fascinating part of the tour came at the end. Our tour guide asked the question, “How is it that we are even able to tour this house, considering that it was built in the 1840s?”
He then proceeded to tell us a bit of the history of Staunton itself. How it was occupied in the late years of the Civil War by the Union army. How they tore up the railroad tracks to keep food from reaching the Confederate army. How they were scheduled to burn the town to the ground. Except . . .
Staunton had three sizable institutions within its jurisdiction: a prestigious female seminary (now Mary Baldwin University), Virginia’s school for the blind and the deaf, and a lunatic asylum. Burning the town would mean displacing a lot of vulnerable people. Suddenly the union generals recognized a PR nightmare. And the people of Staunton encouraged their decision by turning on the charm toward their enemies. The generals left Staunton standing and instead burned a town nearby, not knowing that in doing so they preserved the birthplace of a future President of the United States.
If you don’t know much about Woodrow Wilson personally, he was a pretty interesting guy. Look him up and read about him. And if you ever find yourself out in Northern Virginia, find this small but excellent monument to our 28th President.
Have you visited any Presidential homes or libraries (museums)? Which place is your favorite?
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Thank you for sharing the history of President Wilson’s birthplace. Very interesting!
One of our favorite presidential museums is the Lincoln museum in Springfield, IL. It is a newer museum and has special effects in some areas, which make you feel like you were a part of history. They also have rotating special exhibits. We have visited it several times!
https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/pages/default.aspx
In DC, there is the house where Wilson retired to after the Presidency. Our family had a similar, private tour also & you could walk in all the rooms. It is a hidden secret in DC. Two of my favorite tours has been to Teddy Roosevelt’s home on Sagamore Hill & Eisenhower’s home in Gettysburg,
Yes! We’ve been to the Wilson’s DC house. It was fabulous, too! I’ve been to the Teddy Roosevelt home in NY, is that the same as Sagamore Hill? I’m thinking not. And I didn’t know about the Eisenhower one in Gettysburg. Yay! More on my list to visit! 🙂
I misspoke in that Teddy Roosevelt’s home was called Sagamore Hill. I enjoyed Eisenhower’s home in Gettysburg because it was the only one he owned. You could walk in each room & take pictures. We have also enjoyed Truman’s Independence home & the LBJ Ranch. My favorite presidential library would be George HW Bush’s. Your question was so timely because I had just pulled pictures to make a scrapbook page of all the presidential homes we have visited & another one for the libraries.
Interesting! I thought my family were the only ones who stopped at places like this! Love it!
Nope, you are not alone! 🙂
Thank you for sharing about Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace. Since I have never been there, I really enjoyed learning about it. I lived in Richmond, VA, for about 25 years and loved the history associated with it and surrounding areas like Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown.
Yes, Virginia has great history to visit. We were in Richmond for the first time a couple of years ago and visited Chief Justice John Marshall’s home. It was quite fascinating, too.
I love touring little out of the way museums, Anne, and this one looks wonderful! And what a fabulous tidbit of history about how the town was spared during the Civil War. I’m so glad it didn’t burn. What a loss that would have been. Although, I’m sure the losses from the next town were just as tragic. Thanks for sharing your find!
Of course! I love tidbits of history I haven’t heard before.
We’ve visited Wilson’s birthplace in Staunton, a beautiful town in the Virginia mountains. Have also visited Eisenhower’s library and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s summer home at Campobello. That is a truly beautiful place, and we drove from our hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine onto the island in New Brunswick, Canada. President Reagan’s library in Simi Valley is also amazing – such a beautiful setting and also his gravesite. We plan to visit the Nixon library in Yorba Linda later this summer when we visit our daughter in CA. She told us they are having an Apollo 11 exhibit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Yes, we are history buffs and check out any place along our travels just like you did.
Those are some great places we haven’t been, either! Although we did get to the Reagan library earlier this year. It was awesome! Especially loved getting to tour Air Force 1!
My brother lives in Charlottesville and we have visited Staunton several times while up that way. We stopped here several years back while in town for a home & garden tour.
Fun! Charlottesville is also such a beautiful and history-filled area of the country.
Not a presidential library…..but my husband and I recently made a trip to Charlotte, NC and visited the Billy Graham Library. I cannot say enough wonderful things about the Library. The house he grew up in is also there. We stayed the whole day. I was so special. I highly recommend a visit there. You will be blessed!
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve heard it is a great place.
I have been to Mount Vernon and Lincoln’s house in Springfield, Illinois and Grant’s Farm outside St. Louis. I love history and my mother planned trips to places like Gettysburg, Washington, D.C.. Philadelphia and Carter’s Grove when we spent two weeks with my father’s parents each summer. Hubby and I lived in Portsmouth for a few months when he was in the Navy and saw Williamsburg and Jamestown among other places. Don’t know that I have a favorite. I just love history.
Me, too! And it’s so much fun that we still get to visit those places!
I visited a home where Ronald Reagan lived when he was about 12 years old in Dixon, IL. It was very interesting and the guide made it fun for my family by letting our daughter (who was about the same age) sit in his chair at the dining room table! It was a special memory for us all!
Very cool! I love those off the beaten path historical places. We’ll have to look for it if we ever get up that way!
We love the Abraham Lincoln museum in Springfield, IL!
I’d love to go there someday!
When I was a middle school, my class went on a field trip to Augusta, GA. We had a walking tour that included Woodrow Wilson’s boyhood home on the route.
Woodrow Wilson is included in the original “Childhood of Famous Americans” series. The series was published for a young readership audience between 1940s-1960s; some authors wrote about multiple individuals. My Catholic school library had a number of these books when I attended in the 1990s.
Yes, they mentioned he moved to Augusta, GA after Staunton. Interesting that so many of his homes are still identified. Childhood of Famous Americans is a great series. I often read books like that when I’m starting research on a project to get a good overview.
My cousin and I toured the museum but I don’t remember touring the house.
Is this a recent addition?
We were there 7-8 years ago.
We also toured “The Little White House” in Warm Springs, GA.
Both places are amazing and we would love to go back.
What is “the Little White House”? I haven’t heard of that one. I think the house in Stauton has been a tour for a while. Maybe you weren’t there during a timed tour? Or perhaps they didn’t have any guides available that day?