The White House: America’s Most Haunted House?
Robert Scoble/FlickrThe White House may be the most haunted house in the United States.
Perhaps the most haunted house in America is also its most famous. The White House in Washington, D.C., is allegedly home to several ghosts.
Completed in 1800, the White House has been home to every president since John Adams. And his successors have admitted to feeling a ghostly presence in the executive mansion.
“The damned place is haunted sure as shootin’,” President Harry S Truman wrote to his wife in 1946, after hearing knocking on doors and footsteps in empty rooms. “Secret Service said not even a watchman was up here at that hour.”
To date, several former White House inhabitants have made their presence known. The ghost of a little boy so frightened members of President William Howard Taft’s administration that the president forbid anyone of speaking of it — or they’d get fired.
Some have claimed to see Abigail Adams, John Adams’s wife, in the East Room, where she once hung out clothes to dry. Contemporary staff report smelling lavender and wet laundry.
And others have reported seeing presidents lingering around the White House long after their administration (and lives) had ended. Mary Todd Lincoln claimed to hear Andrew Jackson stomping around. Others say they’ve seen Thomas Jefferson playing the violin and William Henry Harrison — the first president to die while in office — in the attic.
One of the most commonly seen ghosts in the White House is Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865. First, Lady Grace Coolidge claimed she saw him staring out a window in his former office, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill says he saw Lincoln sitting by the fire.
“They say Lincoln always comes back whenever he feels the country is in need or in peril,” said Jared Broach, who once offered White House ghost tours.
Broach claims he is sure that the White House is haunted. “If I said [otherwise], I’d be calling about eight different presidents liars,” he explained.
Certainly, the White House has some of the most alleged hauntings in the United States. But is it the most haunted house in America? More haunted than Myrtle Plantation? Or the Villisca Axe Murder House?
There’s only one way to find out. Gather your wits and visit some real haunted houses across the United States. Maybe some of the country’s most active ghosts will make themselves known.
After reading about the most haunted houses in America, look through these real-life ghost stories. Or, learn about the controversial McKamey Manor, a “haunted house” so scary that it requires a waiver.
