Smitten with their city’s connection to the first Southerner elected to the United States executive office since the Civil War, Columbians enthusiastically circulated postcards of what is today the Woodrow Wilson Family Home shortly after the 28th president was inaugurated in 1913. Fortunately, a copy of the earliest of these mementos exists within Historic Columbia’s permanent museum collection. With an original sticker price of as much as three cents, the value of the cardstock keepsake to contemporary researchers has increased considerably, as this “point in time” reference provides tantalizing clues about this South Carolina landmark property as it looked during the early 20th century.
Taken from the southwest corner of the grounds, the colorized postcard offers an oblique perspective of the 1705 Hampton Street property around 1915. Keeping in mind the artists employed by the printing company who manufactured the postcard may have taken some liberties in the choice of colors, the piece nonetheless suggests what the building looked like by the time the Van Metre family called the Wilson family’s former residence its home.
Postcard, circa-1915. Historic Columbia collection, HCF 2004.12.9
The view of the twostory, wood frame villa is framed by two of the magnolias reportedly planted by Woodrow Wilson’s mother, Janet “Jessie” Woodrow Wilson, sometime between 1871 and 1873. The layout of the formal portion of the property’s grounds is evident—sand pathways outline a pillshaped planting bed, a tea olive stands adjacent to the house’s front steps; and multiple trellises support clematis or roses, the latter of which Mrs. Wilson was said to have cultivated, too. Architectural details are apparent as well. The colorist’s choice of red for the roof seems to verify existence at this stage of a pressmetal shingles, which replaced the wood shingle roof known by the Wilson family. Throughout both elevations louvered shutters are closed except for those found on the window of Tommy Wilson’s bedroom, and lightning rods cap the structure’s two stuccoed chimneys, offering some protection from the hazards of inclement weather. Lastly, superimposed in the picture’s duck egg blue-green sky are the words, “Old Home of/President Woodrow Wilson/ Columbia, S.C.”
A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. In some cases, it can be the stuff that makes up thousands of postcards celebrating important places, people, or events. Generations of recipients of such postcards came to know the capital city for its ties to the man who became known as the world’s first modern international statesmen for his role in World War I.
Come and see for yourself Columbia’s connection to this globally important person and the watershed Reconstruction era in which his family called South Carolina home. Having been closed since 2005, the Woodrow Wilson Family Home reopens for public tours this Presidents Day weekend. For more information on this exciting event or to visit the historic house museums under the stewardship of Historic Columbia, visit historiccolumbia.org.
– John Sherrer, Director of Cultural Resources Historic Columbia
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