Qualla: Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rolfmueller, CC BY-SA 3.0. Twelve rooms. Twelve fireplaces. The First Presbyterian Church of Staunton built the house in 1846 for its minister, and on December 28, 1856, the minister's wife gave birth in an upstairs bedroom to a son named Thomas Woodrow Wilson. The family stayed only a year or two before the father took a different pulpit further south, and the boy who would become the 28th president of the United States grew up mostly in Augusta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina. But Wilson never forgot the Manse. He returned several times - including a two-night stay just after his 1912 election - and called Staunton home. The house at 18 North Coalter Street is, in the technical sense, the place he came from.

Image: Rolfmueller | CC BY-SA 3.0

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library: The Manse

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. A manse is a Presbyterian minister's residence, and this one cost about $4,000 to build - serious money in 1846. The Greek Revival house has porches on multiple levels and views across the small valley that runs through downtown Staunton. The Wilson family - Joseph Ruggles Wilson...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library: Wilson Returns

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wilson visited Staunton repeatedly as an adult. In December 1912, just weeks after winning the presidential election, he and his first wife Ellen came to Staunton for his 56th birthday. They stayed two nights in the Manse as guests of Reverend Frazier, who was then minister of th...

Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library: The Library Complex

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation incorporated in 1938. The house was restored to its 1850s appearance - which meant removing later additions like bathrooms and changing fixtures back to the kerosene and oil lamps of Wilson's birth year. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library: What's in the Museum

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The 8,000-square-foot museum two doors down from the Manse focuses on the Wilson presidency and the world it tried to shape. The signature artifact is Wilson's 1919 Pierce-Arrow limousine, the car that carried him through the post-war negotiations and his ill-fated cross-country ...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain