WHEATLAND
Home of James Buchanan, America’s Fifteenth President

Helen H. Hill

Wheatland, located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania still has the feel of a country estate that James Buchanan loved.

James Buchanan was well prepared for his role as the fifteenth president of the United States. He had previously served as a member of both the House and Senate, as Minister to Russia under President Jackson, as Minister to Great Britain under President Franklin Pierce, and as Secretary of State during the Polk administration. Unfortunately, he took office at a time of grave national turbulence, seeking to achieve, by the means of law and diplomacy, what was later accomplished by Civil War. On the way to Lincoln’s Inauguration, he is said to have told the new President that he hoped he would be as happy in the office as he himself was to leave it. James Buchanan was our nation’s only bachelor president.
Buchanan purchased his country estate of Wheatland, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1848, and developed a deep affection for the property, enjoying “the comforts and tranquility of home” amid the “troubles, perplexities, and difficulties” of public life. Built in 1828 for Lancaster banker William Jenkins, Wheatland was originally named for the wheat fields it once overlooked. The 22-acre farm was located on Marietta Avenue where today only four and a quarter acres of park-like setting remain.
The original preservation effort began with the Junior League of Lancaster in 1936, eventually resulting in the house being named a National Historic Landmark in 1962. Today the property is operated by the James Buchanan Foundation for The Preservation of Wheatland.

Original Features
The imposing brick structure with its front white portico is shaded by an assortment of graceful elms and hardwoods and looks today just as it did when first built. Even though Wheatland had several owners since the President’s death in 1868, the mansion hasn’t undergone major remodeling, and has suffered few interior alterations beyond the installation of electricity and heating systems.
The commodious floor plan features a center hall that runs front to back and branches to the west and east in a ‘T’ formation. The rooms are spacious, with high ceilings, and retain most of their fine woodwork, fireplace mantels, and interior details. The staircase balusters are of solid tiger maple. The interior shutters in every room are original, and the wooden-slat Venetian blinds date to Buchanan’s time. Another fortunate survival is the pierced cornice work in the family dining room. This sort of detail could easily have been removed by later owners when it went out of fashion.
All of the window sashes, and many of the glass panes, are original to the property with the exception of a single second floor window in the west bedroom that was replaced during the installation of a modern bathroom in the 1890s. At that time the owners installed cisterns in the attic and a zinc bathtub below.
Wall and floor coverings can be an enormous challenge in some houses. Wheatland is fortunate, however, in that Frank Lesley’s Illustrated Newspaper published an article in 1856 with numerous engravings that showed how many of the rooms were furnished at that time. The engravings also showed the floor covering and the wallpaper. The formal dining room, for instance, which was just refurbished in 2005, now boasts a wall covering resembling gray damask that was based on these engravings. The John Burrows Company was engaged to design a new carpet for this room that resembles the carpet in the engraving. Woodward, Grosvenor & Company, Ltd, at the Stourvale Mills in Worcestershire was selected as weaver. Family Heirloom Weavers of Red Lion, Pennsylvania, produced ingrain carpet for several of the upstairs bedrooms.

The Library
Just about everything in the house’s library actually belonged to James Buchanan, making this room the most authentic in the mansion. Lesley’s engravings showed the room in detail, so the floor covering, the walls and the arrangement of the furniture are now exactly as they were. The stenciled border just below the ceiling has been restored to its original design and colors. Only a small trace remained, but it was fortunately enough for paint analysis to show what had been there.
“We’ve got two bookcases on the back wall that Buchanan purchased from the previous owner,” stated Executive Director Patrick Clarke. “We have his law books, the family bibles, and numerous books that belonged to Buck and Harriet (his nephew and niece).”
The fine library table in the center of the room was a gift to the president from his niece, Harriet Lane, upon his election, a fitting gift for a new president.

The Kitchen
The working kitchen that was supervised by housekeeper Hetty Parker was in the basement. There is still a fireplace opening, and the dumbwaiter is still in place between the kitchen and the holding kitchen above. Eventually, the gift shop will be moved out of this space so that the upper kitchen can be restored to show its original function.

Buchanan’s Favorite Frog Pond
About five years ago, there was an attempt to determine exactly where James Buchanan’s favorite frog pond was originally located. Lesley’s 1856 birds’ eye view shows it in the far western corner with granite steps and wrought iron railings. As springs will do, over time this one dried up and disappeared.
The Foundation received a grant to replace the pond from the Lancaster Community Foundation in 2004. Scholars talked to neighbors who at that time were in their 90s. They gave oral histories to help curators to rebuild the pond in the northwest corner near Marietta Avenue. As the first shovel from the backhoe went into the ground, water spurted up. This created a great deal of excitement, but sadly, as in earlier times, it quickly dried up, confirming that the spring was no more. The staff is currently installing a garden in memory of Barbara Minney to surround the newly restored pond.

The Carriage House
The brick carriage house dates to the 1880s and houses one of Buchanan’s carriages. The beautiful vehicle was completely restored by a local carriage shop in the late 1980s. The location of the original carriage house is unknown, so this coming summer, 2006, the Foundation will sponsor an archeological dig to find the foundations of the earlier wood frame building. While they don’t have a whole lot to work on, they have located some underground anomalies through electronic resistivity sounding research performed in 2004 by Franklin and Marshall College. This geophysical study gives a sort of ultrasound for the ground surface that can reveal disturbances in the bedrock beneath.

Conservation
About 25 years ago, the problem of moisture in the basement was addressed. The house is built on a sloping lot, where groundwater has caused brick walks to sink, and has resulted in “wicking” that made the cement of the back basement wall weep with moisture. The slope around the bulkhead to the basement was re-graded, and underground drains were installed under the many downspouts. The problem was eventually solved, and now, with restored windows, the basement provides staff offices in a completely dry environment.
A CAP Grant (Conservation Assessment Program) was just completed on Wheatland, and specialists remarked over how sensitive the installers of the air-cooling and heating system were in the early 1980s. In order to maintain the character of the house, the architects used flexible ductwork that was snaked through existing cavities. Some of the interior walls are made of solid brick, which created a serious challenge for the wiring and ductwork. Engineers even used spaces in the headers for the windows to accomplish the project invisibly.
“From the CAP we also know that we have some challenges with the slate roof,” commented Clarke. “There is an indication that the house may have initially had a wood shingle roof, but that is yet to be determined.”
A Historic Structures Report will eventually be done to look into this issue further.
Projects in a historic house are continuous because there are always new preservation tasks to be undertaken. A current concern is the care of the trees on the property. One elm in particular predates President Buchanan’s time. Several elms have already been lost to Dutch elm disease, but this particular tree has resisted the malady. Clarke tells us that they are taking no chances on this survivor. They are working with a local arborist to inject a fungicide systemic treatment into the root system. This process has to be repeated about every three years. The effort to save a single tree clearly indicates the Foundation’s desire to preserve Wheatland just as it was when Buchanan lived there.

Wheatland, 1120 Marietta Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603, (717) 392-8721, www.wheatland.org. Open April 1 through October 31 (closed Easter).