A Tour of James Buchanan’s Wheatland
James Buchanan’s Wheatland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. Visited on November 23, 2018.
Cross the threshold. Say where you’re from. Follow your guide, dressed in period costume, to the left. This was James Buchanan’s dining room. Here’s a list of foods that people in his time would have eaten for dinner: turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans.
Remind us, which president was James Buchanan?
Through this door, and we’ll enter the parlor. Notice how the Christmas trees were different at different times in history? Sometimes they were thin and tall. At other times, they were short and squat.
Also, decorations were different at different times in history. This one has candles on the branches, but they’d only be lit once and only with a bucket of water nearby.
Wasn’t James Buchanan a slaveowner?
Up these stairs, and we come to Harriet’s room. She was James Buchanan’s niece. She was the Jackie O of her day. Over there is a picture of her two boys who died suddenly when they were children. There’s a Louis Vuitton trunk covered in stickers. Harriet traveled all over the world.
Are you going to say anything about the Civil War?
This is James Buchanan’s bedroom. That’s a chair with a hole in it for taking a shit. Clothes hangers hadn’t been invented yet, so there are pegs and hooks on the walls to hang outfits.
What’s the latest from historians on James Buchanan’s sexuality?
Over here, in this room, we have a bathtub. This was put in after James Buchanan died. By then, the house had running water. The patent number on the handles is from the 1800s.
Are you upset or relieved that James Buchanan no longer ranks as the worst U.S. president?
That concludes our tour. Thanks for visiting.