CHAPTER 28

America’s Greatest Haunted City

WASHINGTON

If there is a common denominator to these Washington ghosts, it is one of near-European romanticism and a degree of intrigue and mystic involvement that you will never find in other cities in America.

—Hans Holzer, The Ghosts That Walk in Washington

AN OVERVIEW OF HAUNTED SITES in the nation’s capital reveals it to be a city rife with ghosts and places where inexplicable events have been known to occur. In fact, if you search long enough, you will discover that practically the whole city is haunted, and that the unresolved business of more than two centuries has bound within it an uncanny number of ghosts. Those who work in the city rush past dozens of possibly haunted places every single day, most of them oblivious to the uneasy spirits who dwell there. But Washington, D.C., most certainly is, as the now-defunct Washington Star newspaper wrote in 1891, “America’s greatest haunted city.”

I have lived in the Washington area about two decades altogether, worked or conducted business there over the years, and have heard many stories of ghostly phenomena associated with it.

“There is … a general acceptance of the occult” in Washington, psychic researcher Hans Holzer wrote in 1971, suggesting that it may be “because the business of government in itself is, by its very uncertainty, prone to cause a certain curiosity for knowledge beyond the five senses.” To whatever extent that was true nearly four decades ago, it appears to be much less so today, and neither openmindedness nor a sense of humor seem to be traits associated with the directors of possibly haunted historic and governmental sites in or around the nation’s capital.

Many parts of Washington are also less accessible today than they were prior to September 11, 2001, and the uneasy spirit of that day persists in the city as palpably as any ghost. In the downtown area in particular, where a great many government buildings are located, a number of streets have been closed to vehicular traffic and nearly all of them are lined with Jersey barriers and huge, car-bomb-proof concrete planters. Ghosthunters will now find that security requirements have made it much more complicated to get into the White House, the Capitol, or any number of other high-profile sites.

All of that said, there are still many enticements for ghosthunters in Washington, D.C. This book is concerned only with sites that are both believed by many to be haunted and are also publicly accessible. It furthermore concentrates on sites with some historical merit that are in areas that are most easily and safely visited.

Beyond readily visited sites in the safer sections of the city, there are also throughout the District innumerable places that are believed to be haunted but which are closed to the public, either because they are on private property or within restricted government facilities. Ghosthunters affiliated with the military or other government agencies might have access to reputedly haunted places like Fort McNair—where those convicted of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln were confined and four of them were subsequently executed—or St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, half of which has been taken over in recent years by, of all things, the Department of Homeland Security.

Two particularly interesting publicly accessible sites are the Decatur House and Ford’s Theatre, both located in D.C. Northwest, and each with a chapter devoted to it in this book. A number of other significant purportedly haunted sites are described more briefly on the following pages of this chapter.

Ghostly phenomena begin at the geographical center of the city—on Capitol Hill—and radiate out from it. Many are associated with the Northwest quarter of the city, which we will venture into after exploring the Hill a bit.

Numerous ghost stories have been associated with the Capitol building itself over the years and it is widely believed, by those inclined to believe such things, to be haunted. Indeed, if conflict, strong emotions, and unresolved issues are among the basis for ghostly phenomena, then it certainly makes sense that it would be. Phenomena people have reported over the years have included seeing figures animate and move about in Statuary Hall; a variety of ghosts—including people purported to have been killed in the building and the ubiquitous Civil War soldiers—throughout the building, especially the Rotunda; and a black cat that is supposed to appear in the basement just before a national disaster occurs (e.g., the 1929 stock market crash, the 1963 Kennedy assassination).

Just to the northeast of the Capitol is the Supreme Court building, located at the site of the Old Brick Capitol. That long-gone structure was used by Congress for five years after British troops burned the Capitol in 1814, after which it subsequently served first as apartments, then as a Union prison during the Civil War, and finally as headquarters of the National Woman’s Party, before being torn down in the 1930s to make way for the current building. By virtue of the Supreme Court’s location on the site of the earlier building, it is rumored to be haunted by a number of ghosts. These include career politician John C. Calhoun, who dwelled in the building while serving in Congress and dreading the prospect of the coming Civil War; Confederate spy Belle Boyd, confined in the prison during the war; Henry Wirtz, commandant of the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, who was hanged in the prison courtyard; and various other unnamed prisoners and guards.

Another reputedly haunted site on Capitol Hill is the Library of Congress. Paranormal phenomena that have been reported in its labyrinthine stacks over the years have included inexplicable banging sounds and heavy exhibit cases moving on their own. One specific story, supposedly corroborated by library staff, involves a police officer who helps people lost in the stacks find their way out and then, before disappearing, tells them he was killed several years before.

Moving westward off the Hill along Pennsylvania Avenue will take the ghosthunter past various storied and ostensibly haunted locations (and, after about a half mile, within a block or so of Ford’s Theatre). One of these is the National Theatre, at 13th and E Streets, which was built in the 1830s and is still a popular venue for live entertainment that my wife and I have attended a number of times over the years. We did not witness anything supernatural during our visits to the theatre, but have heard some of the legends surrounding it. One involves an actor who was supposedly slain by a jealous colleague and buried in the establishment’s basement, which is strictly off limits to the public (this is sometimes cited as corroboration of the legend, despite the fact that such areas often have restricted access).

The National Theatre

Just a block past the National Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue is the Willard Hotel, a grand and historical edifice that has been rightfully called “the Residence of Presidents,” and housed many executives prior to their moves to the nearby White House. (It has always been one of my favorite hotels anywhere and has a personal connection, having been designed by an ancestor. Many years ago, I had the pleasure of spending a weekend in its upper-story Woodrow Wilson suite, and can honestly say I felt the spirit of the city while I was there, if not any specific ghosts). Ulysses S. Grant was one of the luminaries who lived at the hotel and has subsequently been not so much seen in it again as detected in the lobby by the smell of the stogies that were an omnipresent element of both his life and death.

Two more blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue—which is closed to vehicle traffic soon after it passes by the Willard—will bring a visitor to the White House, likely the place with the greatest reputation for being haunted in the capital city. Foremost among the ghosts said to haunt the executive mansion is Abraham Lincoln, and those who claimed to have encountered his shade there include Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands during a visit to Washington.

Other ghosts purported to have been seen in the White House include Abigail Adams, associated especially with the East Room, where she continues to hang laundry in death as she did in life; Dolly Madison, who is said to have appeared to gardeners, possibly in a perpetually annoyed response to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson having her prized rose bushes moved; and a spectral Redcoat arsonist from the War of 1812, who people have seen trying to set fire to the place with a phantasmal torch. And President Harry S. Truman on more than one occasion said he could sense the presence of his predecessors, especially those he believed had been handed messes not of their own making.

“While I work from early morning until late at night, it is a ghostly place. The floors pop and crack all night long,” he wrote of the White House in his diary on January 6, 1947, going on the mention the specters of James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, James Madison, and Andrew Johnson. “They all walk up and down the halls of this place and moan about what they should have done and didn’t. … So the tortured souls who were and are misrepresented in history are the ones who come back. It’s a hell of a place.”

Several houses across from the White House on Lafayette Park are also reputed to be haunted. These include the Decatur House, haunted by the spirit of a hero whose limitless ambitions were thwarted by an untimely death; and Blair House, where a shade believed by some to be that of Woodrow Wilson has been reported sitting in a rocking chair in one of the bedrooms (although Wilson’s own home elsewhere in the city would seem to be a more appropriate haunt for his spirit).

Continuing a few blocks further west to 1799 New York Avenue N.W. will bring a ghosthunter to the Octagon, a truly strange residence, which despite its name is actually an irregularly shaped, three-story brick building that has just six sides but eight angles. It was designed by William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol, and built between 1798 and 1800 for Colonel John Tayloe III, original owner of the Willard Hotel and possibly the wealthiest Virginia planter at the time. In 1814, Tayloe invited President James Madison and his wife, Dolly, to dwell at the house while the White House was being rebuilt after the War of 1812, and it was there that the president signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended that war. Various ghosts have been reported in the house over the years—including Tayloe and a number of servants—and apparently linger on in connection with a series of strange tragedies that marked the home. One of these involved one of Tayloe’s daughters, who was killed when she plummeted down the steps; her screams have been heard and the candle she carried seen by visitors to the place. Another involves a second daughter who, bizarrely, also pitched down the steps, breaking her neck and pushing up the carpet at the foot of the stairs when she plowed into it; that carpet is said to curl up as a result, despite the best efforts of people to keep it down.

A trip further westward through the district will eventually bring a visitor to Georgetown, once an independent town built along the banks of the Potomac (where Ninian Beall, another of my ancestors, owned significant tracts of property in the years prior to the Revolutionary War). It is one of the oldest and most characteristic sections of the city and site of numerous buildings with a longstanding reputation for being haunted.

One of the most famous of these is Halcyon House, a Georgian-style home located in the heart of Georgetown. It was built and occupied by Benjamin Stoddert, a merchant whose business failed from a lack of adequate attention during his service as Secretary of the Navy during President John Adams’ administration. A subsequent owner renovated the home, and the changes to it are said to have angered the lingering spirit of Stoddert, who has been reported sitting in the location where his favorite chair once stood. Visitors have also reported waking up to discover themselves levitating a foot above the bed, seeing lights go on and off on their own, and discovering that an old woman has tucked into bed children who have stayed overnight in the house.

A number of other ostensibly haunted sites can be visited in D.C. Northwest alone. Beyond the famous Willard, for example, a number of other hotels throughout the city are reputed to be haunted.

One of these is the Shoreham—now owned by the Omni Hotel Corporation—which was built in 1930 and is located on upper Connecticut Avenue, at its intersection with Calvert Street. Not long after it opened, two young women were rumored to have died under circumstances both tragic and mysterious, and the rooms where it happened were shut up and used as storage areas for many years. They were eventually reopened and are widely known as the hotel’s “Ghost Suite” as a result of the spirits people claim to have seen in them. Another is the Hay-Adams (at 800 16th Street N.W., on Lafayette Park), an Italian Renaissance-style luxury hotel built in 1928 on the sites of the former homes of John Hay and Henry Adams. The ghost most commonly associated with it is that of Adams’ wife, Clover, who is believed to have committed suicide in their home and who has been seen or felt throughout the hotel. Other reported incidents at the Hay-Adams have included all the guest rooms on the second floor opening at one time, an inability to keep the housekeeping closet on the sixth floor locked, and the inexplicable scent of mimosa on the eighth floor.

Various abodes of the dead in Washington are also believed to be haunted, and the most prominent of these is Rock Creek Cemetery, an eighty-six-acre memorial park with a natural rolling landscape that was established in 1719 (at Rock Creek Church Road and Webster Street, N.W.). One of the sites within it where some of the strangest phenomena have been reported is the Adams Memorial, where the aforementioned Clover Adams and her husband are buried. The statue before it, of a hooded androgynous figure, was crafted by premiere American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who wordily dubbed it “The Mystery of the Hereafter and the Peace of God That Passeth Understanding.” It is widely known by the shorter nickname “Grief,” and people have reported both seeing it weep and cry uncontrollably while in its presence. Many other significant monuments are located in the cemetery, and it has been the site of many other supernatural occurrences as well.

Henry Adams House

There are many more haunted places in the District of Columbia and the sites described in this chapter represent just a handful of those that are publicly accessible. Suffice it to say, there are many, many more places of potential interest in the capital city for ghosthunters interested in investigating the phantasms and stories associated with them.