Washington D.C.

Senate

The ghost of a stonemason who was sealed behind a wall during construction of the Senate building in 1790's. He has been seen passing through
a wall in the Senate basement. Legend says he was sealed in the chamber after being hit in the head with a brick during an argument with
another mason. The ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier, outfitted in a splendid Continental uniform, walks near the Washington Crypt, the empty
tomb where our first president was supposed to have been buried.

The whole Capitol Building was cursed by engineer John Lenthall as he lay dying under a collapsed archway. Lenthall was crushed to death by
falling bricks in September 1808, when he pulled out when support arch to demonstrate to the supervising architect that the support was
unnecessary. Today, Lenthall is said to have his revenge in the crumbling walls, cracked columns, and shifting foundation of the building that
killed him. The ghost of another engineer roams the basement area. He is Pierre Charles L'Enfant, George Washington's original designer for
Federal City. He is seen carrying a parchment, perhaps a bill for money due. The French engineer was never paid for his work.

The basement was also a favorite spot of former Vice President Henry Wilson. He spent almost as much time in the bathtubs there as he did in
his office. In November 1875, he caught a chill that proved his ultimate undoing, but that he did not stop his spirit from returning to his favorite
pastime. His lathered ghost and the sounds of wheezing and sneezing have been reported in the corridor outside the Vice President's Office.

The caterwauling of the Demon Cat, who is said to stalk the basement near the Catafalque Storage Room, can sometimes be heard echoing
through the damp corridors. In 1862 and again in 1989, the guards shot at a black cat that had swelled to the size of an elephant. In the 1950's a
guard came across the demon cat and watched in astonishment as it swelled to the size of a tiger, then vanished. Over the years, such
encounters with the ferocious feline (nicknamed D.C.) have portended pleasant events for the nation.

United States Supreme Court

The ghosts that haunt this building are from the Old Brick Capital, that used to stand there. The building served as the nation's capital for seven
years, after the British burned Congress during the War of 1812. It was later used as apartment housing and then as a prison during the Civil War.
While famed southern orator John C. Calhoun was living there, he was visited by the spirit of George Washington, who warned the South
Carolinian about the consequences of secession. Calhoun heeded the Founding Father and passed his warning on the Congress. After he died in
1850, Calhoun's ghost was seen frequently in his old residence, and he still seemed worried about the dissolution of the Union. In the 1920's, a
congressman came across the phantom of a Union guard with a long rifle over his shoulder, pacing in front of the former jail. In 1922, the National
Womans' Party took over the building and made the upstairs room into woman's apartments. The suffragettes' presence seemed to encourage the
materialization of the spirits of the woman who had been imprisoned there. Confederate spy Belle Boyd, who used her charms to seduce Yankee
officers, returned to her spartan chamber in the Union prison. Her bitter laughter could be heard echoing through the building late at night. On the
anniversary of May Surratt's death, her ghostly figure would appear in the window of her former jail cell.

Bibliography: Hauck, Dennis. Haunted Places: Ghost abodes, sacred sites, UFO landings, and other supernatural locations. New York: Penguin
Book, 1994.

The White House

There are numerous ghosts including Dolley Madison, Anne Surratt, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Thomas and Willie
Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, an unnamed British soldier, Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, William Henry Harrison, former White
House owner David Burns, and several other unknown ghosts, mostly ex-presidents and their relatives, and a demon cat in a basement.

Aside from being the seat of the nation's government, the White House is also one of America's more famous haunted houses. Boasting an active
population of pat presidents and their relatives, the White House has been recording ghostly visitations since it was built. There are so many
ghosts here, that most expedient way to mention them all is to discuss each haunted area beginning on the ground floor.

As visitors to the White House discover, the site is graced by a beautiful rose garden, where many press conferences are held today. The
picturesque garden, planted by Dolly Madison, was almost destroyed during Woodrow Wilson's term by Mrs. Wilson's orders. An enraged Dolley
Madison returned from the grave to stop the workmen from fulfilling this terrible task, and their description of the terrifying encounter has protected
the gardens ever since.

The ground-floor front entrance to the White House is commonly known as the North Portico. The ghost of Anne Surratt appears at this pot on the
seventh of July each year to mourn the death of her mother, Mary, who was hanged on that date in 1865 after being convicted in the plot to
assassinate President Lincoln. When she manifests, the grief-stricken Anne wildly pounds on the White House door for a few moments, and then
vanishes for another year.

The East Room, also on the ground floor, is haunted as well. There, the ghostly resident is commonly identified as Abigail Adams, whose
phantom goes about hanging laundry. She often passes through walls, astonishes staffers, and leaves behind the scent of soap and wet clothing.
On the second floor, the most haunted room is undoubtedly the Lincoln Bedroom. Originally serving as President Lincoln's Cabinet Room, the
room now hosts a record number of sightings of the murdered president. Witnesses include Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston
Churchill, Harry Truman, Lady Bird Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy, Maureen Reagan, Susan Ford, Grace Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, and many
others. One of Franklin Roosevelt's servants, Mary Eben, observed Lincoln as he put on his boots, and other have encountered the tall spirit
resting on the nine-foot-long bed in the room.

Although most often associated with the Lincoln Bedroom, Abraham Lincoln's ghost was first reported in the Yellow Oval Room, where he was
originally encountered by Grace Coolidge. Since then, Lincoln's spirit has been observed staring longingly from the windows in this room, where
he was known to read and meditate. The Yellow Oval Room is also home to Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler, both of whom were spied by Mary
Todd Lincoln.

Even before Lincoln's death, the room now designated as the Lincoln Bedroom was charged with supernatural energy. In fact, Abraham Lincoln
was an amateur spiritualist and held numerous séances in the room. During these, he contacted spirits such as Daniel Webster. The séances
also led to premonitions of his own death. President Lincoln encountered other ghosts in the White House as well, including his own sons
Thomas and Willie, the latter of whom died in the building at the age of twelve. Willie's ghost is still spotted wandering the hallways at night, and
today Lincoln's own footsteps can be heard in these corridors. Since the Taft administration. Abigail Adams has been observed silently floating
through closed doors and wandering the hallways as well, perhaps on her way to the first-floor East Room.

The Rose Bedroom, or Queen's Suite, is the personal abode of Andrew Jackson, who first manifested for Mary Todd Lincoln in 1865. Since then,
White House personnel have repeatedly encountered Jackson's laughter, and his presence causes an inexplicable cold spot near the bed. People
working in the room have felt the president's presence lurking nearby, and in 1964 one of the Lyndon Johnson's aides heard the ghost cursing and
shouting. The spirit of Lincoln also visited the room on at lease on occasion: During the Second World War, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
was staying in the room when, upon answering a knock at her door, she discovered Lincoln standing in the hallway.

Almost all of the other bedrooms on the upper floor are haunted by ghosts ass well. Willie Lincoln has appeared in one of the rooms many times
and even held conversations with members of Ulysses S. Grant's family. The torch-wielding ghost of a British soldier suspected of trying to burn
down the White House in 1814 appears in another room; while the anguished labor screams of Grover Cleveland's wife, the first woman to give
birth in the White House, haunt yet another room in this section of the building. Even the White House's attic is haunted. From this uppermost
room drifts the disembodied voice of David Burns, the man who owned the White house property in 1790. William Henry Harrison is also heard in
the attic as he moves about in search of some unknown object.

With the number of ghosts said to inhabit the White House, the building is clearly a ghost hunter's dream. Unfortunately, many ghost hunters
have had difficulty gaining entrance to portions of the White House deemed haunted. Although the building is technically "owned" by the people, it
is still considered the private residence of the president and his family. A standard tour can be arranged, but only the first floor (including the East
Room, the Rose Gardens, and the North Portico) is open to the public. The most interesting rooms, such as the Lincoln Bedroom, are off limits to
visitors.

Bibliography: Blackman, W. Haden. The Field Guide to North American Hauntings. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.