Woodrow Wilson Family Home

The Woodrow Wilson Family Home on Hampton Street is where the 28th US president spent most of his childhood. His father Joseph Wilson was a Presbyterian minister in Columbia, and the family lived in this 1872 house from the end of the Civil War until Woodrow left for Davidson College. The house has been restored and is open for tours.

The museum covers Wilson's formative years in Columbia, his family background, and the trajectory of a career that culminated in the presidency and the post-World War I peace negotiations. Given his complicated legacy — progressive on some issues, aggressively segregationist on others — the house presents an interesting historical puzzle. Guided tours run Wednesday through Sunday.

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A story
Wilson lived in Columbia from age 2 to 16, when his father served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. He is said to have described the burning of Columbia — which he witnessed as a young child — as his earliest clear memory. The house was built for the Wilson family in 1872 and has been restored to its late 19th-century appearance.