ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994                   TAG: 9407110052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: STAUNTON                                LENGTH: Medium


WOODROW WILSON'S GONE, BUT HIS LIMO ENDURES

Yeah, the portrait of Woodrow Wilson negotiating the World War I peace treaty at Versailles is pretty interesting. But to really know the 28th president, you must know his car: a 1919 Pierce-Arrow limousine delivered to him 75 years ago this weekend and displayed at his birthplace museum.

Richard Robertson, an antique auto enthusiast and former museum trustee, knows every detail of the black limo. He directed a mechanical overhaul that got the car running again.

An exhibit that opened Saturday, "Under the Hood," focuses on the history of the car and the $55,000 restoration.

A crowd of about 100,000 gathered at Union Station in Washington, D.C., at midnight, July 8, 1919, to welcome Wilson home from Paris. A White House chauffeur met the president and his wife and ushered them into the Pierce-Arrow, one of about 200 made that year and priced at $9,250.

There was a hard top and a convertible top, silk curtains and shades, carriage lights and silver-plated bud vases in the rear section. Edith Wilson had the bud vases removed because she thought they were too effeminate for her husband, the president.

Wilson had a push-button installed so he could send directions to his driver. One buzz was the order to stop, two to go left and three to go right.

"There is a basic simplicity to the car - the upholstery, color, design - that sort of bespeaks the man," Robertson said. "Pleasing and proud, but its simplicity is the mark of its greatness. It's not loaded with a bunch of doodads. Wilson was a conservative sort of person. He wanted things nice but not gaudy."

Five of Wilson's buddies from his Princeton University days knew he loved the car, and driving was a favorite pastime. So they pitched in to raise the $3,000 needed to buy the car from the government and gave it to Wilson when he left office in 1921.

He was debilitated by a stroke, and a daily ride around Rock Creek Park along the Potomac River and down to Mount Vernon was part of his routine.

His driver, George Howard, told interviewers that Wilson was leery of speed and would let him go only 25 mph.

One of the former president's favorite activities was watching Washington Senators games at the old Griffith Stadium. In the museum brochure, the owner of the Senators at the time, Clark Griffith, said Wilson "was a sick man, so he'd remain in the limousine, parked along the right field line. We'd reserve a catcher to sit on the front fender and ward off line drives."

Howard drove the Wilson family in the funeral procession when Wilson died in 1924.

Robertson said that modern presidential cars, with bulletproof windows and frames and high-technology communications systems, became too expensive for presidents to buy after leaving office.

"It is one of a few presidential cars that exist today," Robertson said. "As such, it is a piece of memorabilia for everybody."



 by CNB