History | History

Beyond Monticello and Mount Vernon: The Other Presidents’ Houses - NYTimes.com

James Buchanan was in a huff. Sure, he was president, and the Southern states were talking about secession. But in the old “all politics is local” spirit, he was also upset that landlords in his hometown, Lancaster, Pa., were refusing to rent to students at Franklin & Marshall College, where he served on the board of trustees. As a protest, he opened his own estate, Wheatland, to student tenants. While it seems unlikely, that, say, George H. W. Bush would have rented his seaside home in Kennebunkport, Me., to tourists, things were different in the mid-19th century.