The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Built in the 1790s, the White House has been the home of most of the United States's Chief Executives. The second President, John Adams, first resided here. More to the point, so did his wife, Abigail, who was fond of hanging laundry in the East Room, which she found was the driest in the mansion. Her spirit is still reported by staffers, who see her carrying a laundry basket in the room. During Woodrow Wilson's term in the White House, several gardeners refused to move Dolley Madison's rose garden because Mrs. Madison herself--dead for decades by that point--told them rather strongly not to. In the 1940s, a diplomat and his wife had a great deal of trouble getting to sleep when the ghost of a British soldier repeatedly tried to light their bed on fire--he is thought to be a remnant of the War of 1812.
The most notable hauntings involved with the White House are related to one of its most illustrious former--and perhaps present--inhabitants: President Abraham Lincoln. Once, visiting Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands shocked a party by announcing that she had spent the night before in a faint on the floor--after seeing Lincoln's ghost at the door to her room. President Harry Truman claimed that he once woke to a knocking on his door, and answered it to find no one there--but he was greeted by a cold spot and sourceless footsteps trailing down the hall. He was convinced that was Lincoln.
One of the most interesting details of Lincoln's haunting was reported by none other than Lincoln himself. He reported once having a dream that he was asleep, then was awoken by sobbing. In his dream, he went downstairs, to the East Room, to find the source of the weeping. There he found mourners and a casket, and asked a mourner who had died. She responded, "The assassinated President." Lincoln walked over to the casket and saw himself inside. He was dead not long thereafter, the victim of an assassin's bullet.
Willard Hotel, 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Built for John Tayloe III in 1816, the hotel gained its name in 1850 when it was bought by the three Willard Brothers. Before long the Willard was known as the meeting place in Washington. During his time in office, President Ulysses S. Grant would visit the Willard nearly every business day, spending time in the lobby drinking, smoking fine cigars, and watching the people who walked by. Later, after people caught on to his daily ritual, Grant was met at the lobby by people asking for political consideration (hence the term "lobbyist"). Guests and employees of this grand hotel say the spirit of President Grant makes itself known even today in the rich scent of expensive cigars.
Stephen Decatur House, 748 Jackson Place, N.W.
A celebrated naval captain in the War of 1812, Stephen Decatur made his home in this house, completed in 1818. Decatur was admired and even considered a Presidential hopeful, but he had the misfortune to serve on a court martial board of his friend, one Commodore James Barron, commander of the frigate Chesapeake. Decatur agreed with the rest of the board that Barron should be court martialled, starting a fued that ended in Decatur's death at Barron's hands during a duel thirteen years later. Residents of Washington still report seeing Decatur's spirit peering out of the second story window, perhaps deciding whether to accept Barron's invitation to duel, as well as seeing the ill-fated man slip out the back door of his house and into history.
The Octagon, 1799 New York Avenue
A unique structure in Washington, the Octagon is in fact not eight sided; The proper term for a building of its type is rather a "pregnant hexagon." The structure was built between 1799 and 1801 by architect William Thornton for John Tayloe III, also the original owner of the haunted Willard Hotel (detailed above). During the rebuilding of the White House after the War of 1812, the Octagon served as the residence for president James Madison and his wife Dolley, who held elegant parties in the residence.
Like many buildings in Washington, D.C., the Octagon has an interesting history, and many of its visitors and residents have contributed--some willingly, others not--to its haunting forces. In fact, two of the daughters of John Tayloe--who died for strikingly similar reasons and in similar fashions--are said to be involved in the haunting. Tayloe evidently forbade one of his daughters to be visited by a particular young man, and possibly as a result, the daughter fell or jumped to her death down the middle of the wide staircase that wound above the main hall. Visitors to the Octagon believe that this daughter's ghost is responsible for the shadow of a candle going up the staircase and the scream of her fall, which stories claim echoes faintly even now.
Halcyon House, 3400 Prospect Street, N.W., Georgetown
Details to come.
Marshall House Hotel
Alexandria, VA
Details to come.
Details to come.
