The south grounds, c. 1860, showing the first greenhouse, built on the west terrace in 1857. Historical Society of Washington, D.C. James Buchanan, at the urging of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane, added a wooden greenhouse on the roof of the west terrace in 1857, adjacent to the State Dining Room. One could enter a private world of plants and flowers grown for decorating the house. This simple structure burned in 1867 and was replaced by iron and wood structure twice as large as the earlier one.