Start your tour at the President's Shop and Visitor Center, where you'll get your tickets and an orientation to the life and work of James Buchanan. Go on to the main house and enter through the front door. The first floor halls are T-shaped, with a central entrance hall furnished with Empire-style pieces and a back cross hall with a staircase. To the left is the parlor, the most formal room in the house, where Buchanan's niece and hostess,Harriet Lane, received guests. The room is furnished with Rococo Revival pieces, a grand piano and portraits of Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort, given to Harriet Lane by their son, the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.
Turn to the right to the sitting room/dining room, an informal family room, where you'll see an Empire sofa, mahogany dinner table and the Buchanan silver service. Go on into the cross hall and turn right into the small dining room, a spartan room where breakfast and tea were served. Beyond this is a serving pantry with stairs that lead down to the kitchen in basement. On the east or left end of the cross hall is the library, which served as Buchanan's office and had a private door to the outside so political cronies could come and go without disturbing the rest of the household. The glass-fronted bookcases are original to the house.
Climb the stairs to the second floor and on the northwest end over the sitting room is James Buchanan's room, with a four-poster bed, desk and numerous side chairs. Buchanan's private study is immediately to the south. Harriet Lane's room is over the parlor in the northeast corner and has Rococo Revival furniture and a canopy bed. Between Harriet and Buchanan's rooms, over the central hall, is a small front bedroom with a sleigh bed. This may have been occupied by James Buchanan "Buck" Henry, who served as his uncle's secretary. A guest room is in the east wing over the library, up a half-flight of stairs from the landing. It's also furnished with Rococo Revival pieces.
Pass through the study into the west wing, where you'll see the rather plain bedroom of housekeeper "Miss Hetty" Parker and a bathroom, paneled in cherry wood, which was added by later owner George Wilson in the 1880s. It includes a copper-lined tub with shower head and a bidet.The attic and basement rooms are not open to the public, but you can explore the remaining outbuildings on the grounds: a privy, smokehouse and carriage house.
