WoodrowWilson's Wartime Sheep Farm

The White House, 1918

By James Patton

In 1918, based on an off-hand remark made by President Woodrow Wilson on a country drive, his personal friend Dr. Cary Grayson procured a small flock of about ten sheep for the White House, even though neither member of the First Family was from a farming background.

The flock was put out to graze on the back lawn to create a pastoral setting which, in the era of the Kirkbride Plan, was thought by doctors to be good for mental health.  It didn’t really work out that way. The sheep didn’t like living in an urban environment and were spooked by automobiles. Some of them sickened, but they still managed to become a nuisance, eating almost all of the grass on the back lawn. Wilson ordered the sheep moved to the bigger south lawn, where all of the flower beds, shrubs and small trees had to be fenced to keep them from becoming fodder.

The White House, 1919

While the flock might not have calmed the Wilsons, it did prove to be a big public relations success. It was cited that the sheep grazing on the grass reduced the number of groundskeepers, perhaps freeing a couple of dozen men for military service, although the flock did require hiring shepherds and even veterinarians. When the shearing season came around the wool was collected and each of the 48 states were allotted a portion of it which their governors auctioned off for the benefit of the American Red Cross. Nearly $52,000 was collected, which is equivalent to just under a million dollars today. The image of the President doing his humble bit to help the nation in time of war was good copy. In 1920 the flock had grown to 48 animals and was removed to Homeland Farm in Olney, Maryland (now a suburb of D.C.).

Sources: The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, Staunton, Virginia and The Atlantic Monthly