This is James Buchanan's house from the back. It's supposed to look like a Northern farm house.
This is the house from the front. It's supposed to look like a Southern Plantation home. During his presidential campaign he would greet southern supporters through the front door, and then northern supporters through the back door. Of course, by the end of his office, neither the northerners or the southerners liked him because he was too much in between.
This is the carriage house where the tour began and that they had turned into a little museum/intro to James Buchanan's life.
Of course, the carriage house wouldn't be complete without a specially made carriage for James Buchanan in it.
Here's mom and Chrissy who didn't want her picture taken at all on this trip. This is the best one I got of her without mom and dad both cajoling her into it.
Here's the only good picture of Chrissy with my mom and the black-eyed susans that chrissy really liked.
And who could forget the 8-holer privy? They are still in the process of renovating the privy, but this is what half of it looked like back then, 2 adult holes, 2 youth holes, and 1 child hole. Just think, the whole family could go at once! (and together)
Overall, it was a pretty interesting house. It always amazes me how un-rectangular the layout is of some of the rooms and such. It always felt that although the rooms were all square-ish, that we had to go up and down stair to get to different rooms on the same floor and that they weren't put next together correctly. I really liked the indoor shutters that they had too. They were wooden panel ones, but they accordian-ed back into the window frame to enhance the window frame decoration. I thought it was a really cool idea that I haven't ever seen in modern day homes. Apparently James Buchanan also really like to read Sir Walter Scott novels, such as Ivanhoe. I thought that was cool because I actually have read Ivanhoe, and it doesn't make Buchanan seem so old to me, even though he lived in the 1850's.
