Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is a complex located in Staunton, Virginia. It contains the President's birthplace, known as the Manse, a Museum that explores the life and times of Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), a Research Library, a gift shop, and several other buildings that are not open to the public. Like all United States presidential libraries for administrations prior to that of Herbert Hoover, Wilson's is not part of the Federal National Archives' presidential library system. The Birthplace Manse The Woodrow Wilson Birthplace is referred to as the Manse, which is the name of a Presbyterian minister's home. It was built in 1846 by the Staunton First Presbyterian Church. It has 12 rooms with 12 fireplaces and cost around $4,000 to build. The Wilson family moved into the house in 1855 as his father was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor and called to serve as a pastor in Staunton. At that time the family consisted of his parents—Jessie Woodrow Wilson and Joseph Ruggles Wilson—and their two daughters Marion and Annie, who were about four and two years old, respectively. Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in what is now called the "birth room" on December 28, 1856. The Wilsons left the Manse in 1858 when Joseph Wilson accepted a call from a congregation in Augusta, Georgia. Wilson continued to visit Staunton throughout his life often referring to it as home. After his 1912 presidential election, Wilson and Ellen visited Staunton over his birthday in December of that year and spent two nights in the Manse as a guest of his good friend Rev Frazier who was then the Minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Staunton. After the Wilsons moved out of the Manse it remained the Presbyterian minister's until the 1920s. It was after the former President's death in 1924 that his widow Edith Bolling Galt Wilson along with former cabinet members and Staunton community members decided to create a Birthplace museum to commemorate Wilson's life.