Whether or not you believe in ghosts, you’ll have to admit they have a significant place in American history.

There have been countless ghost stories told about the White House… tales of paranormal activity that have been reported by the White House staff, by foreign dignitaries, and even by Presidents and their wives and children. Servants, staff members, and political figures alike have gone on record as experiencing sudden cold spots, doors opening and closing on their own, and hearing disembodied footsteps, voices, knocks, and screams.

And of course, there are ghostly manifestations, including a deceased former president who appears when the nation needs him most, a First Lady who is doomed to do laundry for all eternity, and a daughter who pleads in vain for the life of her doomed mother.

Considering the building’s historical importance and the off-the-charts level of paranormal phenomena witnessed there, I think it’s fair to say that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue deserves the title of “America’s Most Famous Haunted House.”

 

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If you visit the White House hoping to catch a glimpse of the ghost of George Washington, you’re out of luck.

George Washington never actually lived there. He died before it was finished, and his ghost is probably busy haunting Mount Vernon. His successor, John Adams and First Lady Abigail moved into the not-quite-completed building in November of 1800, and Abigail, who died in 1818, has the honor of being the earliest First Family ghost in the White House.

Back then, the facilities weren’t quite as fancy as they would be later on, and Abigail used to hang her laundry to dry in the East Room, as it was the warmest and driest room. Her ghost has often been seen heading in that direction with arms outstretched as if she were carrying a basket of laundry. Staff members claim to smell the scents of clean laundry and lavender.

 

Another First Lady who still hangs around the White house is James Madison’s wife, Dolley (who I think also invented snack cakes). Dolley watches over the Rose Garden, which she herself planted. The garden was scheduled to be removed at one point during the Wilson administration, but when the workmen showed up, they walked off the job when they were confronted by Mrs. Madison’s ghost. Plans were changed, and it was wisely decided to leave the garden right where Dolley wanted it.

 

Thomas Jefferson, the first presidential ghost known to be spending the afterlife in the White House, has been seen and heard playing his violin in the Yellow Oval Room. And William Henry Harrison, the first president to die in office (succumbing to pneumonia just one month after his inauguration), has been sighted rummaging around in the White House attic… perhaps looking for something he left there during his short stay?

 

However, the most prominent deceased resident of the White House is Abraham Lincoln, who is by far the most frequently observed presidential apparition. In the 150-odd years since his death, the sensation of his presence or an actual spectral manifestation has been noted by dozens of observers and even reported in the newspapers of the day.

 

 

 

 

At the time Lincoln occupied the White House, Americans were obsessed with Spiritualism. With the loss of so many husbands, sons, and fathers in the Civil War, many grieving survivors sought comfort by attempting to communicate with their spirits of their lost loved ones.

Mary Todd Lincoln was a great believer and had many séances in the White House after the death of their son, Willie. Willie was 11 years old when he died of typhoid fever in the White House in 1862. His ghost was seen frequently through the 1870s, and presidential daughter Lynda Bird Johnson actually claimed to have seen him and talked with him.

 

 

Lincoln himself participated in two of Mary’s séances and was said to have had dreams and premonitions of his own death.  (Interestingly enough, Lincoln himself was skeptical about the existence of an afterlife.)

Lincoln’s ghost seems to appear more frequently during times of national upheaval – perhaps he hopes to help or inspire? This was especially true during the FDR administration and World War II, one of the most perilous times in the nation’s history.

Eleanor Roosevelt used the Lincoln Bedroom as her office, and she often remarked on having felt the 16^th president’s presence there with her as she worked.  (The Lincoln Bedroom actually wasn’t a bedroom when Lincoln was president – it was the Cabinet Room where he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.)

 

 

Grace Coolidge, wife of President Calvin Coolidge, claimed to have seen his unmistakable figure, hands clasped behind its back, gazing out of a window in the Oval Office, looking across the Potomac at what once were Civil War battlefields. And Lady Bird Johnson (wife of LBJ) told others that she had felt his presence in the White House residence while watching a TV program about his assassination.

Other White House residents who reported encounters with Lincoln’s ghost include Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, and presidential daughters Maureen Reagan and Susan Ford. 

Even foreign visitors weren’t immune to being haunted by Lincoln… while staying at the White House, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands heard a knock at her bedroom door and answered it to find Abe’s ghost in his top hat on the other side. The poor queen fainted dead away.

 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also met Lincoln’s ghost under interesting circumstances. While visiting the White House in the 1940s, Churchill walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a cigar to find Abe sitting in front of the fireplace! Never at a loss for words, Churchill reported that he said “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage;” then Lincoln smiled and disappeared. He may have joked about it, but Churchill was so shaken by the apparition that he refused to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom from that day onward.

 

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Mary Todd Lincoln was unusually perceptive when it came to White House ghosts. She claimed to have encountered many of them, including hearing the angry ghost of Andrew Jackson “swearing and stomping around” the White House. When he wasn’t stomping around, others have heard Andy laughing maniacally from his old bedroom.

 

Harry Truman also commented on the presence of Jackson’s ghost and a number of others, describing the strange sounds and movements that went on in the residence. Truman often commented on how he’s seen and heard many spirit manifestations, saying “The damned place is haunted, sure as shooting!”

 

He wrote to his wife Bess: “I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches–all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study.”

But after the White House was fully renovated in 1948, ghostly sightings became much less frequent.  The inside structures had been gutted, and it’s been said that spirits need a physical place that they were attached to in life in order to manifest. After that renovation, only the outer shell of the building was intact as it was originally built. But even now, some ghosts still persist.

 

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It’s not just famous ghosts who haunt the home of the Presidents.

One of the lesser-known shades who haunts the White House is David Burnes, the former owner of the land that the building stands on. He likes to announce his presence in the Yellow Oval Room, where numerous people have heard him saying “I am Mr. Burnes!”

 

There’s also the tragic ghost of Anna Surratt, who has been seen and heard banging on the White House doors as she did back in 1865. Daughter of Mary Surratt, one of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination, Anna came to the White House, demanding to see President Andrew Johnson to plead for her mother’s life. (Spoiler: It didn’t work.)

 

 

Another one you probably haven’t heard about is the ghost of an unknown teenage boy, referred to as “The Thing,” who terrorized the Taft White House. Those who saw him described him as a 14- or 15-year-old boy with unkempt light-colored hair and sad blue eyes. His favorite trick was to lightly touch people on the shoulder, causing such turmoil among the staff and servants that Taft was reported to have been in a “towering rage” about it, threatening to fire anyone who even talked about the ghost.

And you know how some people just can’t leave the office behind? Some deceased members of the White House staff have also been known to show up for work even after shedding the mortal coil. For instance, there’s a long-deceased White House usher who they say is still turning off lights in the building and a ghostly former White House doorman who is reported to still be on the job.

Even the White House grounds seem to be haunted… alongside Dolley Madison protecting her Rose Garden, there have also been many sightings of an unknown British soldier from the War of 1812 (when the British tried to burn down the White House) who roams the grounds, torch in hand.

 

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Is the White House truly the most haunted house in America? Jared Broach, founder of haunted tour company Nightly Spirits, stated in a Washington Post interview, “The White House has the best ghost stories, and I’d call them the most verified.”

After all, if the skeptics are right, and all the stories of a ghost-infested White House are simply hogwash, Broach said, “I’d be calling about eight different presidents liars.”