Woodrow Wilson House (Washington, D.C.)

Woodrow Wilson House
Location 2340 S St., NW
Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°54′50.22″N 77°3′6.12″W / 38.9139500°N 77.0517000°W / 38.9139500; -77.0517000Coordinates: 38°54′50.22″N 77°3′6.12″W / 38.9139500°N 77.0517000°W / 38.9139500; -77.0517000
Area less than one acre
Built 1915
Architect Waddy Butler Wood
Architectural style Georgian Revival
NRHP Reference # 66000873[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966
Designated NHL July 19, 1964[2]

The Woodrow Wilson House was the residence of the Twenty-Eighth President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson after he left office.[3] It is at 2340 S Street NW just off Washington, D.C.'s Embassy Row. On February 3, 1924, Wilson died in an upstairs bedroom.[3] It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.[2][4] The National Trust for Historic Preservation owns the house and operates it as a museum.[3]

History

The house was built by Henry Fairbanks in 1915 on a design by prominent masonic Washington architect Waddy Wood. President Woodrow Wilson bought it in the last months of his second term as President of the United States as a gift to his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson.[3] He presented her the deed in December 1920, although he had never seen the house.[3] The former president and his wife moved into the home on Inauguration Day,[3] which in 1921 was March 4 (not the current date of January 20). Wilson made several modifications to the house, including a billiard room, stacks for his library of over 8,000 books, and a one-story brick garage.[3]

It was from the balcony of the house that Wilson addressed a crowd on November 11, 1923, as his last public appearance.[3] While the Wilsons had few guests, former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau did visit the ailing former president there.[3] After Wilson's death in 1924, Edith Wilson lived there until her death on December 28, 1961. She hosted First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for a brunch in the formal dining room. Edith bequeathed the property and all of its original furnishings to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[3]

In the years since President Wilson's death visitors and staff of this house and several others built by Wood in the DC area have reported seeing or hearing what they believed to be ghosts.[5]


References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Woodrow Wilson House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "National Park Service – The Presidents (Wilson House)". Nps.gov. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
  4. ↑ Blanche Higgins Schroer; Carol Kolb & Steven H. Lewis (March 17, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Woodrow Wilson House" (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying three photos, exterior (front, rear and garden), from 1975 (32 KB)
  5. ↑ "Find Real Haunted Houses in Washington DC - Woodrow Wilson House in Washington DC". www.hauntedhousewashingtondc.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
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