About Us:
The President Woodrow Wilson House is the home to which President and Mrs. Wilson retired from the White House in 1921. President Wilson lived here until his death in 1924, and Mrs. (Edith) Wilson lived in the home until her death in 1961, at which time she bequeathed the home and its furnishings to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to serve as a monument to President Wilson. The home and gardens were designed by architect Waddy Butler Wood and were completed in 1915.The President Woodrow Wilson House is situated in the Kalorama – Embassy Row area that has long featured stately mansions and town homes. The home is executed in a Georgian Revival style and is sympathetic in design to two adjacent buildings constructed in the same era, one designed by John Russell Pope and the other by Mr. Wood. The home was originally built as a private residence of Henry Parker Fairbanks, an executive of the Bigelow Carpet Company. The President Woodrow Wilson House includes many remarkable features, including a marble entryway and grand staircase, Palladian window, book-lined study, dumb waiter and butler’s pantry, and solarium overlooking the formal garden. The home has been maintained much as it was in 1924, including furniture, art, photographs, state gifts, and the personal effects of President and Mrs. Wilson. The drawing room includes a century-old Steinway piano that President Wilson had in the White House, a framed mosaic that Wilson received on his trip to Italy in 1919 from Pope Benedict XV, and a wall-sized Gobelin tapestry presented by the people of France following World War I.
President and Mrs. Wilson moved from the White House to the S street home on the last day of his presidency, March 4, 1921. President Wilson is the only President to have made Washington his permanent home following his term in office. In retirement, President Wilson received dignitaries and guests at the home, including former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.
President Wilson made a radio address to the American People from The House on November 11, 1923, the fifth anniversary of Armistice Day – the first nationwide remote radio broadcast.
2013 marks the centennial of the inauguration of President Wilson and the 50th year of the President Woodrow Wilson House as a museum.
