132-0004

Woodrow Wilson Birthplace

(NHLs) Virginia's National Historic Landmarks, Staunton (Ind. City)

VLR Listing Date

09/09/1969

NRHP Listing Date

10/15/1966

NHL Listing Date

07/19/1964

1964-07-19

NRHP Reference Number

66000926

DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth president of the United States, was born in this Greek Revival manse in the city of Staunton in 1856. Built in 1846 to house the pastors of Staunton’s First Presbyterian Church, the manse’s second occupants were Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Ruggles Wilson, Wilson’s parents, who moved here in 1855. Although his family left the city of Staunton while he was still a baby, it was in this forthright dwelling (in the Gospel Hill Historic District) that the seeds of Wilson’s firm moral and intellectual training were planted. He carried these precepts into his adult life as a professor, president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey, and finally president of the United States. Wilson conceived the League of Nations, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. The manse was acquired by the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation in 1938 and was dedicated as a museum by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.

Last Updated: November 17, 2023

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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark