The Ghosts of Washington DC are...strAInge

A look at the White House, Capital and more

DC GHOSTS

Washington, D.C. is a city built on power, war, assassination, political intrigue, and enough history to fill a thousand ghost stories. Beneath the monuments, government buildings, historic homes, churches, hotels, and quiet parks, the District has accumulated a particularly strange collection of stories about people who supposedly never left.

In this episode of strAInge, we go looking for the ghosts of Washington, D.C., from the White House to Capitol Hill, from Lafayette Square to Georgetown, and into some of the city's oldest and strangest buildings.

THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House has perhaps the most famous presidential ghost stories in America. Abraham Lincoln is supposedly the most frequently reported apparition, with stories placing his ghost inside the residence. Other historical figures have also supposedly encountered the spectral president.

The White House itself has plenty of history to provide raw material for a haunting. George Washington selected the site in 1791, John and Abigail Adams became the first presidential residents, and the building was burned by British forces during the War of 1812 before being rebuilt. Every president since John Adams has lived there.

The real history is arguably stranger than the legends. Generations of presidents, families, servants, staff members, political figures, and visitors have occupied the building, leaving behind more than two centuries of memories and tragedies.

THE U.S. CAPITOL

If any building in Washington deserves to be haunted, it may be the Capitol.

The Architect of the Capitol itself has documented several famous Capitol ghost legends. One involves a mysterious ghost cat supposedly appearing before major national tragedies. Another concerns a wounded Civil War soldier who allegedly still wanders through Statuary Hall.

The Civil War story has a particularly grim historical basis. In 1862, the Capitol was temporarily converted into a military hospital, with more than 1,000 cots placed in Statuary Hall. According to the legend, at least one wounded soldier never really left.

Other stories involve John Lenthall, a clerk who died after an accident during construction and supposedly cursed the building with his dying breath, and former congressman William Preston Taulbee, whose ghost is said to haunt a Capitol stairwell after he was shot there in 1890.

And then there is John Quincy Adams. The former president died in the Capitol after collapsing during a session of Congress. According to legend, his voice can sometimes be heard shouting "No!" late at night.

THE OCTAGON HOUSE

The Octagon House is one of Washington's most famous haunted locations.

Built in 1801, the house became the temporary executive mansion after the British burned the White House in 1814. James and Dolley Madison lived there for several months, and the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, was signed there in 1815.

The ghost stories are numerous. Phantom servant bells are supposedly heard ringing around dinner time. The smell of lilacs has been associated with the ghost of Dolley Madison. Another legend claims that two Tayloe daughters fell to their deaths on the spiral staircase.

There is an important catch: historical research indicates that the famous story about the Tayloe daughters dying at the Octagon is not actually true.

Which raises a fascinating question: how much of a haunting is about what happened in a building, and how much is about the stories people decide happened there?

LAFAYETTE SQUARE

Just north of the White House, Lafayette Square forms the center of another concentration of Washington ghost stories.

The park is surrounded by historic buildings associated with political intrigue, death, war, and some very old Washington families. Stories involving Decatur House, St. John's Episcopal Church, the Cutts-Madison House, the Hay-Adams Hotel, and the Octagon have helped give the neighborhood a reputation as one of the city's most haunted areas.

The White House itself sits directly across from the square, making the entire neighborhood feel like one enormous haunted historical district.

THE EXORCIST STAIRS

Not every Washington ghost story comes from American history.

Georgetown's famous Exorcist stairs became permanently associated with William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. The movie's climactic sequence ends with Father Karras sacrificing himself and tumbling down the 75 steep concrete steps.

The stairs are real. The location is real. The movie was filmed there.

Whether the stairs themselves are haunted is another question entirely.

Today they have become one of Washington's most famous horror landmarks, attracting movie fans, tourists, ghost hunters, and people who apparently believe that climbing 75 concrete steps is an acceptable recreational activity.

THE REAL GHOSTS OF WASHINGTON

The fascinating thing about Washington's ghosts isn't necessarily whether any of them are real.

The District has spent more than two centuries accumulating the ingredients from which ghost stories are made: presidential deaths, political violence, war, assassination, duels, Civil War hospitals, sudden deaths, historic fires, slavery, political scandals, and generations of people living and dying inside the same buildings.

Some stories can be traced to documented events. Some are folklore. Some have been embellished for generations. And some appear to have been invented almost entirely from whole cloth.

But whether you believe in ghosts or not, Washington is a city where the past is impossible to escape.

The monuments commemorate the dead. The government continues working in buildings where generations of politicians lived and died. And after dark, the marble city takes on a very different character.

So turn down the lights, lock the doors, and join us as we explore the haunted capital of the United States.

Welcome to Washington, D.C.

And welcome to the dead.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

The White House — History of the White House

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-white-house/

Architect of the Capitol — Haunted Halls of Congress: 5 Creepy Capitol Legends

https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/blog/haunted-halls-congress-5-creepy-capitol-legends

Ghosts of DC — The Octagon House

https://ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/31/octagon-house-haunted/

WTOP — Haunted DC: Are the Dead Alive in Lafayette Square?

https://wtop.com/halloween-news/2018/10/haunted-dc-are-the-dead-alive-in-lafayette-square/