March 16th, 2017

19. Rural Houses – The Wilson House.
The Wilson House in  the outskirts of  Strabane, is a good  example of a typical rural house of this area.  Any differences in  custom between the houses of locals and  settlers had been amalgamated by the Eighteenth Century in a use of common  materials and a reaction to a common climate. Known as the ‘direct entry’  type, its entrance opens onto a living space with a fire on the furthest  cross wall.  A thatch roof covers lime  washed stone walls. The raised portion with slate roof dates from the  nineteenth century. This building has been preserved because it is reputedly  the ancestral home of President Woodrow Wilson. His ancestors left this area  in 1807 and emigrated to America. Other houses in the area had corrugated metal put over their roofs in the early twentieth century to ease maintenance. This example is near Plumbridge.