The White House is not only famous for its history but for its ghosts. Harry S Truman’s late-night card games go on without him. The spectre of Abraham Lincoln sometimes appears in the State Dining Room. Former resident Helen Taft would occasionally enter the Red Room and tap her cane in a very distinct manner, alarming the Secret Service agents at her heels. The rooms have been restored to their original appearance, each with an era-appropriate flavour as if the ghosts are having a reunion. Now let’s dive into some well-known stories.
The ghosts of First Ladies
First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln also haunts the White House. She is often seen in the mirror. Her face obscures itself in the reflection, like a ghost from a burning house seeking rescue. She has nobody that anyone has ever seen: only an outline, like a small child’s drawing of a human form. The night she died their dog began to howl and refused to stop. Her husband had her coffin placed in the Green Room.
Ghosts of former first ladies, including Abigail Adams, haunt the Red Room. She is often seen wearing her wedding dress. Abigail died of typhoid fever at the age of thirty-four, shortly after Jefferson took office. The small spirit of a tiny woman with bright brown eyes and pale skin and dark brown hair–a woman in her thirties–floated toward him, her dress rippling behind her as if caught in a breeze, her long white gloves like tendrils stretching out from her wrists as she reached for him. Her bare toes pointed down as she drifted above the floor. Her feet were buried inside what looked like an old-fashioned pair of shoes, tied up in ribbons and tied over her ankles, with one button clasped around her ankle bone.
Even in death, Jacqueline Kennedy is unforgettable. Her ethereal spirit roams the White House, a seductive whisper that could be heard late at night. It whispers through the halls of the White House at night, and to those who listen, it stirs romantic passions, as well as deep grief.
The ghosts of the staff
There is a ghost named Sally, who was President Andrew Jackson’s slave. She is one of the more friendly ghosts in the White House. She is wearing a frock coat and a long tie, and she has her hair done up in a bun. She has pale skin and black eyes, like a sunken tombstone on a bright day. Another ghost of a butler who was persuaded to hang himself in the pantry.
There was a young black maid who lived in the White House and died mysteriously. On certain nights she is said to have returned, searching for her master and disturbed by her plight. Her ghost is sometimes present. She is said to have a slight Caribbean accent. Some have seen her in the White House looking for her master.
The ghosts of the witches from a legend supposedly haunt the White House. A few people claim to have seen them, mostly in the West Wing where the First Lady has an office. The witches are said to drift out of the walls once a year on Halloween and walk across the grounds of the White House and over to the President’s bedroom, where they make a terrible screeching noise, like fingernails on a chalkboard. They are said to be the female phantoms of condemned witches from Salem, Massachusetts. They entered into a terrible battle with George Washington and his men over ownership of the White House after it was completed, and as a result, they were forever cursed to walk its grounds and never rest. Some say they are also bound to murder anyone who takes possession of the White House.
The ghosts of soldiers who died at the White House during the Revolutionary War are probably present as well. Their silent, suffering spirits may drift up to the walls with every breath. If you listen closely, you may hear them calling to each other, their voices thin and faint as the autumn wind. The ghosts linger in the shadow of the White House and may appear translucent, almost see-through until they come into contact with a person.
The ghosts of slaves who were brought to the White House and forced to work there, and then were killed when the White House was burned probably also haunt the building. The slaves probably built the White House by day and had to spend many nights shivering in their beds on the floor. They worked in secret, whispering and hiding their plans from their masters, hoping that someday they would be able to build a place they could call home. This is their home now. They are not so enslaved any longer, but they still cannot rest in peace.
Many Native Americans who were killed and buried on the property surrounding the White House may still haunt it. They may walk in the halls, or they may be trapped in the place of their death, haunting the area. This land was once a cemetery for Native Americans, who were hunted down and killed at will as part of Washington, DC’s development. The pool of fear and malice that settles in the land where thousands have been murdered is known to be a place where ghosts rest, their souls held to this world by the brutality which killed them.
The others are more like shadows, nebulous shapes that appear for a second and then disappear. The building continues to be a meeting site for presidents, although it is now more modern than it was when it was first built. It seems fitting that the ghosts should hang around—the ghosts of presidents. The air smells of old wood and masonry, but the voices stay; they come from the cicadas, and they whisper in the hallway. Time has changed the building, but it has done nothing to change history.