Wheatland (the home of President Buchanan in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) was on our itinerary the day after Winterthur (in Delaware) and it did not disappoint. I was there for the first tour of the day; since no one else was as early, I go a private tour with the very knowledgeable docent. The tour starts on the back porch - where a workman was replacing part of the porch. The house was already its present size when Buchanan purchased it as he became the guardian for a niece and nephew.
There are many decorative features in the house that appeal even today. The windows have sturdy Venetian blinds with wood cut valences. The cords of the blinds are wound around glass knobs (a very practical idea!).
The robust cricket doorstop kept a door open.
The carpets are reproductions and produced in strips that are laid together to form the pattern and ‘fit’ the room.
There is a doll that ‘looks like’ the niece
And some pink ceramic pieces from her dressing table. She inherited the house at Buchanan’s death. Her name was Harriet Lane - known in relation to pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and the St. Albans school in Washington DC.
I liked the egret pitchers
And thought about the practicality of the ‘bath’ before plumbing (or when water is scarce).
I also found some items that are Zentangle prompts (just as I did at Winterthur).
One of the Buchanan items recently returned to the house from a Buchanan descendent was this artful mulit-bell. I wonder what the two bells meant in the household.
The house seen from the front shows a bit more about its division into three parts. Buchanan had his law office on one side. Note where the windows are…the ceilings are higher in the center than in the two wings. The external shutters appear to have been removed from the windows of the wings although some of the hardware is still in place.
As I walked back around to the visitor center, I photographed the privy. The trellis forms a rose bush arbor that hides the entrance to the 5 hole privy (with different seat heights and hole sizes!). 
The grounds around Wheatland and the LancasterHistory.org building have been transformed into an arboretum with careful plantings and signage for the trees. There was a map provided but I decided to walk around and photograph rather than reference it frequently. It was a very warm day and I found myself staying to the shady path whenever possible. The bright sunlight made the pine needles glow!
