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Wheatland, or the James Buchanan House, is a brick Federal style house which is located in Lancaster Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 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 Buchanan's niece, Harriet Lane, who sold it in 1884 to George Willson. It was inherited by a relative of Willson's 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 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the center of the city of Lancaster. It is situated on 10 acres (40,470 m2) of land, which it shares with Lancaster County's 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 403 acres (1,630,883 m2) of land was turned over to a bank in Lancaster by a farmer. The bank sold 165 acres (1 km2) and 68 square perches (18,513 ft2; 1,720 m2) of that land, on January 29, 1828, for $11,731.871⁄2, (equal to $325,506 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 17 acres (68,797 m2) and 253⁄4 square perches (7,010 ft2; 651 m2) 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 5 acres (20,234 m2), for $6,750, equal to $220,725 today. Meredith used it as primarily a summer house and as a home for his wife and children; Meredith's 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 Party's 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 Buchanan's success in the South was his, and the party platform's, 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 If my successor should be as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland he will indeed be a happy man. 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 Buchanan's 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 Lane's 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 family's 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 4.25 acres (17,199.14 m2) 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 $878,273 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 N.... Discover the James M Cahalan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular James M Cahalan books.