Woodrow Wilson Family Home

Historic Columbia is proud to welcome you to the Woodrow Wilson Family Home, South Carolina’s only presidential site and the nation's only museum of Reconstruction. Through exhibits, artifacts and programs visitors like you explore the Wilson family’s life in Columbia and the tumultuous Reconstruction era whose outcome remains profound today.

The Civil War (1861-1865) fundamentally altered the United States physically, socially and politically. Post-war Reconstruction (1866-1877) sought to rebuild damaged communities and extend the benefits of citizenship to formerly enslaved people. During this time residents of Columbia and Richland County built lives for themselves while negotiating new societal opportunities, expectations and realities. Among these citizens were the parents and siblings of a fourteen-year-old boy named Tommy, who later would become the nation’s 28th President.

Thanks to its association with Wilson, this noteworthy historic site was spared from destruction in 1928. For decades the property operated as a shrine, celebrating Wilson’s political life. By October 2005, structural deterioration led to the circa-1872 building’s closure. Funding from its owner, Richland County, grants and donations has resulted in an unprecedented comprehensive physical rehabilitation, and the home reopened to the public on February 14, 2014.