Woodrow Wilson Family Home Tour on March 5

The Mann-Simons Site is of particular interest to the African-American community. While it does not have a specialty tour, it does have several features. In addition to a regular guided tour, it offers ghost structures that depict structures that stood around 1900. It also has signage explaing the structures and various aspects of the property. The structures and signage are available at any time.The Hampton-Preston Mansion hosts a tour on the Women of Hampton-Preston  on the third Saturday of the month (In this case, March 16) at 1 p.m. From the antebellum south through the roaring 20s, women and their roles in society changed drastically over the course of a century.  This tour looks into the lives of the women who worked, played, and stayed in the Hampton-Preston Mansion and at the site.  Each room in the mansion provides insight into the history and progress of women from the time it was occupied by families through the time it housed the Chicora College for Women.Source: HCF websiteThe Robert Mills House is the centerpiece of the Robert Mills Historic District Walking Tour. The tour is offered on the second Friday of the month, in this case, March 8 at 11 a.m. It encompasses the neighborhood around the Mills House which was one of the few neighborhoods that emerged unscathed from the fire of 1865. Click here for further detailsView the list »
The Woodrow Wilson Family Home will be open for its monthly tour on March 4

Places & Faces newsletter

The Historic Columbia Foundation’s monthly tour of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home will take place on Tuesday, March 5. The tour is part of a series of specialty tours which the Foundation offers on a monthly basis. The tour is scheduled for 11 a.m.

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Phase one of the rehabilitation of the Wilson Family Home is now complete. This tour will allow visitors the opportunity to visit the site which is currently under construction. The tour will review the significance of this historic house, the only presidential site in South Carolina, and what is being done to preserve it from additional deterioration. Visitors will learn about the progress being made during the first phase of the project and then walk through the house to get a better understanding of the work that lies ahead. Phase two of the rehabilitation is complete with the construction of an outbuilding. Also, funding has been received to complete the interior renovation and that project is now underway.

The Woodrow Wilson Family Home is the only house the Wilson family ever owned. Wilson’s father, Dr. Joseph Ruggles Wilson, moved the family to Columbia from Augusta, Georgia, in 1870 when he accepted a teaching post at the Columbia Theological Seminary, then located in the Robert Mills House, and was also the interim pastor at the First Presbyterian Church on Marion Street.

The house was built in 1872 with an inheritance left to Wilson’s mother, Janet, known as Jessie. Unfortunately, the Wilsons did not enjoy the house for that long. Dr. Wilson had a falling-out with the seminary authorities and the family left Columbia in 1874. However, President Wilson’s parents are both buried in the First Presbyterian Church’s graveyard and when Wilson himself died in 1924, Columbia was considered as his burial place. Unfortunately, the family plot was full and Wilson was buried at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

The tour costs $6 and is free to foundation members. Tickets may be purchased at the museum shop on the campus of the Robert Mills House at 1616 Blanding Street, Columbia. For further information, please call 803-252-1770 ex 24 or email aposner@historiccolumbia.org.

For other specialty tours offered by the foundation, please check the list.

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  • The Robert Mills House is the centerpiece of the Robert Mills Historic District Walking Tour. The tour is offered on the second Friday of the month, in this case, March 8 at 11 a.m. It encompasses the neighborhood around the Mills House which was one of the few neighborhoods that emerged unscathed from the fire of 1865. Click here for further details
  • The Hampton-Preston Mansion hosts a tour on the Women of Hampton-Preston  on the third Saturday of the month (In this case, March 16) at 1 p.m. From the antebellum south through the roaring 20s, women and their roles in society changed drastically over the course of a century.  This tour looks into the lives of the women who worked, played, and stayed in the Hampton-Preston Mansion and at the site.  Each room in the mansion provides insight into the history and progress of women from the time it was occupied by families through the time it housed the Chicora College for Women.Source: HCF website
  • The Mann-Simons Site is of particular interest to the African-American community. While it does not have a specialty tour, it does have several features. In addition to a regular guided tour, it offers ghost structures that depict structures that stood around 1900. It also has signage explaing the structures and various aspects of the property. The structures and signage are available at any time.
View the list

, Columbia History Examiner

Doug Steimle was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from ...

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