William M . Meredith
Who owned Wheatland (James Buchanan House) between Aug 1846 and May 1847?
Wheatland ( James Buchanan House ) Wheatland , or the James Buchanan House , is a brick , Federal style house outside of Lancaster , Pennsylvania , in Lancaster Township , Lancaster County . It was formerly owned by the 15th President of the United States , James Buchanan . The house was constructed in 1828 by William Jenkins , a local lawyer . The second owner was Thomas Fuller Potter . He sold it to William M . Meredith in 1845 . Wheatland changed hands again in 1848 , when it was purchased by Buchanan . Buchanan occupied the house for the next two decades , except for several years during his ambassadorship in Great Britain and during his presidency . After his death in 1868 , Wheatland was inherited by Buchanans niece , Harriet Lane , who sold it in 1884 to George Willson . It was inherited by a relative of Willsons in 1929 . Wheatland was put up for sale again after the relative died in 1934 and was acquired by a group of people who set up a foundation for the purpose of preserving the house . Wheatland was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 . It was designated a contributing property to the Northeast Lancaster Township Historic District in 1980 . The foundation and the adjacent historical society merged in 2009 . Location . Wheatland is located off Pennsylvania Route 23 ( Marietta Avenue ) in Lancaster Township , about from the center of the city of Lancaster . It is situated on of land , which it shares with Lancaster Countys historical society , at the intersection of Marietta Avenue and President Avenue . The region was originally inhabited by the Susquehannocks , who were first encountered in what is now Lancaster County by John Smith in 1608 . They were also known to early settlers of the area as the Conestogas , after the creek they resided near . In 1680 , William Penn received a charter from Charles II for land to found the Province of Pennsylvania ; Penn divided the land into the three counties : Bucks , Chester and Philadelphia . Lancaster County was formed from parts of Chester County on May 10 , 1729 . Lancaster Township was settled between 1717 and 1720 , and was incorporated out of portions of Conestoga Township in 1729 . The city of Lancaster was laid out in March 1730 and was incorporated as a borough in August 1742 , before being incorporated as a city on March 20 , 1818 . History . On November 20 , 1824 , over of land was turned over to a bank in Lancaster by a farmer . The bank sold and 68 square perches ( 18,513 ft ; 1,720 m ) of that land , on January 29 , 1828 , for $11,731.87 , ( equal to $ today ) , through the use of a straw man , to William Jenkins , a lawyer and , then , president of said bank . Jenkins had a house constructed on the property and named it The Wheatlands , either after the surrounding wheatfields or because the site of the house used to be a wheatfield . Jenkins sold and 25 square perches ( 7,010 ft ; 651 m ) of land , including the house , to his son-in-law Thomas Fuller Potter in 1836 . William M . Meredith bought the same plot on May 8 , 1845 , plus an additional , for $6,750 , equal to $ today . Meredith used it as primarily a summer house and as a home for his wife and children ; Merediths duties as head of the bar in Philadelphia prevented him from living at Wheatland on a permanent basis . Wheatland was put up for sale by Meredith and was contacted in June 1848 by Secretary of State James Buchanan , who was interested in the house . The sale of Wheatland was delayed by Meredith , who was not sure whether he really wanted to sell the estate , and by Buchanan , who did not want to force Meredith into making a decision that he might regret . Wheatland was sold in December 1848 at the same price that Meredith had purchased it at ; Buchanan moved into the mansion several months later , accompanied by his niece , Harriet Lane , and nephew , James Buchanan Buck Henry , and his housekeeper , Esther Miss Hetty Parker . Buchanan ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Partys nomination for President in the 1852 election , however he was appointed the Minister to Great Britain by the newly elected Franklin Pierce . Buchanan did not return to the United States , and to Wheatland , until 1856 . Not long after arriving back at Wheatland , Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party to be its candidate for President on June 9 , 1856 . Buchanan did not tour the country as part of the campaign . Instead , he conducted it from Wheatland as a front porch campaign . Buchanan won the election and carried all of the Southern states , with most of the votes in the Northern states going to the Republican nominee John C . Frémont . Part of Buchanans success in the South was his , and the party platforms , support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act . One of the tactics used in the campaign involved lithographs of Wheatland being printed and circulated , primarily in the South , as a polite way of informing the Southerners that the Democratic candidate , though from the North , had a plantation estate and held a course of life similar to their own . Post-presidency . During his presidency , Buchanan returned to Wheatland sporadically and never for very long . He retired to Wheatland in 1861 , after the election of Abraham Lincoln and the end of his term as President . Buchanan died in a room on the second floor in Wheatland on June 1 , 1868 . Thousands of people attended Buchanans funeral and the procession from Wheatland to the Woodward Hill Cemetery on June 4 . The estate was inherited by Harriet Lane , who used it as a summer house . After both of Lanes sons died—one in 1881 and the other a year later—and a few weeks after her husband died , Lane sold Wheatland in 1884 to George Willson . Wheatland was inherited by Mary Willson Rettew , a cousin of George Willson , after he died of a heart attack in 1929 . Rettew died in 1934 and , left a will stipulating the establishment of The Willson Memorial Building to preserve the familys heirlooms . Her will also requested that the building be occupied by the Lancaster County Historical Society , which had been founded in 1880 . Wheatland , along with of land , were put up for sale by the executors of the will . The Junior League of Lancaster founded the James Buchanan Foundation for the Preservation of Wheatland in 1935 with the purpose of raising funds to buy Wheatland . Wheatland was sold to the Foundation for $40,000 ( equal to $ today ) on February 27 , 1936 . It was opened to the public on May 5 , 1936 and was dedicated as a new presidential shrine , taking its place with Mount Vernon , Monticello and The Hermitage , in October 1937 . Wheatland was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 4 , 1961 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15 , 1966 . Wheatland became a contributing property to the Northeast Lancaster Township Historic District on March 20 , 1986 . The James Buchanan Foundation and the neighboring Lancaster County Historical Society were merged in 2009 to form LancasterHistory.org . Architecture and decor . Wheatland is a Federal style house made of brick . As no documents on the actual construction are known to exist , the person or persons responsible for the design of Wheatland have remained anonymous . However , the architecture of Wheatland , as well as its location on the property , indicates someone who was skilled in classical architecture . Design elements , like various lunette windows , also show the influence of various architectural guidebooks that were prevalent in the early 19th century . The interior of Wheatland is furnished as it would have been in the mid-19th Century , with most of the furniture being original to the house . As Wheatland has never been significantly altered or remodeled , other than the installation of modern lighting and heating , it provides an accurate view of the lifestyle in the Victorian era . The house is made up of a -story , bilaterally symmetrical , central section , flanked by two , three-story wings set back from the main facade . The roofs of both wings are flat and sloping towards the rear of the house ; the northern wing also a pent roof , a sloped , shingled roof between the first floor and second floor windows , on the rear . The front entrance to Wheatland is sheltered by a portico supported by Tuscan order columns , while the rear entrance is on a veranda . Interior . Both of the main entrances into Wheatland open onto a T-shaped hallway . The main portion of the hall is long and wide , while the cross-hall is . It is covered with an oilcloth flooring that was decorated with geometric squares to imitate tile—painting one material to resemble another , more expensive one that was popular in the Victorian era . The original cloth was covered with a modern , red carpet up until 1990 ; it has since been overlaid with an identical , reproduction covering . On the first floor are located the parlor , the library , two dining rooms , and the kitchen . One of the dining rooms is located in the western wing , off of the hallway , and was used primarily used by the family for smaller meals like breakfast or tea . The kitchen is also in the wing , directly adjacent to the dining room . The other dining room , located in the front western side of the main house , was used only for formal dinners and as the sitting room where the men would converse after dinner . The fireplace in the room was enclosed in marble when Buchanan bought Wheatland and had a furnace installed . Across the hall , on the other side of the main house is the parlor , where the women guests would congregate after dinner . The library is located off the hallway in the east wing . The woodwork , doors , a bookcase , and a bookshelf built into the wall were grained to resemble oak . The shelves in the bookshelf no longer exist ; but , the backboard of the bookshelf is visible , as is the plaster wall made to resemble wood . Two mahogany bookcases , flanking the fireplace in the library , were furnished by Jenkins and having been sold to each successive owner by the previous one . The library was primarily used by Buchanan as the place to meet with guests . The second floor is reached by means of an elliptical stairway in the cross-hall . Embedded into the newel post at the base of the stairs is glass peace stone , symbolizing the owners peace of mind after having paid off the mortgage . The living quarters for the inhabitants of Wheatland were located on the second floor . A bathroom , complete with bathtub , shower and a bidet , was installed in the west wing when the Willsons bought Wheatland in 1884 . The third floor was primarily used as servants quarters and has been left unrestored . Grounds . Originally constituting , the grounds surrounding Wheatland were incrementally sold until only remained when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The merger in 2009 , however , included the given to the historical society in 1934 ; the total of the two parcels is almost half of Wheatlands original property . On the grounds , behind Wheatland , stand a privy , a smokehouse , and a carriage house . A stable used to stand on the property but was replaced by the carriage house in the late 1880s ; an icehouse also no longer exists . The carriage house , today , houses meeting and reception space . Wheatland is open to the public Monday-Saturday from mid-January through mid-November , with tours available hourly .