Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Ghosts Lurking at the White House
by Stacy Conradt - October 20, 2010 - 6:06 PM

q10

We live in an old house, and I occasionally see things out of the corner of my eye that make me wonder. There are many totally logical explanations for this, including paranoia, a mirror in a built-in wall cabinet that catches my reflection, and three dogs who move in and out of my line of vision quite stealthily. But even if we did have a couple of ghosties wandering around our house, it’s nothing compared to the phantom population in the White House. These are just 10 of them.

1. Note to the White House gardener: do not try to dig up Dolley Madison’s rose garden. Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Ellen, wanted to have the rose garden replaced during her tenure as First Lady. When workmen tried to carry out her orders, Dolley reportedly scared them into leaving it alone.
2. A mysterious Mr. Burns shows up once every few administrations, politely introducing himself. It happened to FDR’s valet, Cesar Carrera, who heard a voice calling his name from a distance as he stood in the Yellow Oval Room. When he turned to see who it was, the voice declared, “I’m Mr. Burns.” A guard during the Truman administration heard the exact same thing in the exact same spot. It’s speculated that Mr. Burns may be David Burns, the man who had to give up his land to make room for the construction of the White House in 1790. Apparently he’s still trying to stake his claim 220 years later.

3. There are several people wandering the second floor of the White House, which is where the First Family lives. Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln have all been spotted. We’re not sure which one it was who scared the crap out of Harry Truman, though – Harry once wrote to his wife Bess, “I sit here in this old house, all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway. At 4 o’clock I was awakened by three distinct knocks on my bedroom door. No one there. Damned place is haunted, sure as shootin’!”

4. Abigail Adams doesn’t stick to the residential areas – she also shows up in the East Room from time to time. Back in her day, the East Room was the best place for Mrs. Adams to dry the laundry because it was the warmest place in the drafty, incomplete White House. Her ghost was a common sight during the Taft presidency, and sometimes people visiting the East Room smell wet clothes and soap when there’s really no logical reason to smell such things.

5. President Lincoln might as well still be collecting a salary based on how often he seems to be at the White House. Winston Churchill had a famous encounter with Lincoln in the Lincoln bedroom. After a hot bath with a Scotch and a cigar, Churchill climbed out of the bath naked (obviously) and went back into the bedroom to get ready for bed. To his surprise, the room was already occupied by our 16th president. Churchill managed to quip, “”Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” before Abe disappeared. Sounds a bit too perfect to me, but it sure makes for a good story. Other people who have seen Lincoln include his biographer, Carl Sandburg; Grace Coolidge; Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands who fainted when she saw him; Teddy Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; Nancy Reagan; Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jackie Kennedy. It’s rumored that Lincoln’s ghost appears the night before a national tragedy.

6. White House guests who hear a man unabashedly cursing but can’t find a body to accompany the swearing may very well be hearing Andrew Jackson. His old canopy bed is used in the Rose Bedroom, so he must feel at ease occupying the room. Mary Todd Lincoln thought she encountered him in 1865; he was cursing about something. One of LBJ’s aides heard the exact same thing in the Rose Bedroom in 1964. And a White House seamstress once felt Jackson lean over her as she was hemming the bedspread on his bed.

7. Mary Todd also thought she saw Thomas Jefferson in the Yellow Oval Room on multiple occasions. Although we may want to take Mary Todd’s sightings with a grain of salt, other visitors have reported hearing phantom violin music from this room – a sign that Jefferson may still be practicing his favorite instrument even in the great beyond.

8. Despite the fact that the War of 1812 has been over for nearly 200 years, one British soldier is still trying to burn the place down. He has been spotted carrying a torch around the White House grounds, and in 1953, a couple visiting the Eisenhowers had a rather close encounter with him: the soldier had spent the entire night attempting to set fire to the bed in which they slept.

9. It’s said that strange thumps and bumps are often heard from the White House attic, which regulars know is simply William Henry Harrison rummaging around for something. Why they know it’s Harrison and what he’s eternally looking for is unknown.

10. I wonder if the ghost of Lincoln has ever run across the ghost of Anna Surratt. Anna’s mother, Mary, was executed for playing a part in Lincoln’s assassination, the only woman in the group. Anna is still seen beating on the doors of the White House, pleading for her mother’s life. She’s seen on July 7, the day Mary was hanged.

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Comments (39)

  1. I bet William Henry Harrison is looking for a coat to wear to his inauguration.

    posted by Matt on 10-20-2010 at 6:39 pm

  2. Haha@Matt!!

    posted by Sandi on 10-20-2010 at 9:23 pm

  3. Good one, Matt!

    posted by Sara in Al on 10-20-2010 at 10:34 pm

  4. Nice.

    #10 is very interesting.
    Though I don’t believe in ghosts — I love ghost stories.
    And #10 is just my cup-of-tea.

    posted by Blackmouth on 10-20-2010 at 10:39 pm

  5. Mr. Burns could be Montgomery Burns–but he should be saying,”Excellent.”

    posted by Tim S on 10-20-2010 at 11:39 pm

  6. I love this list. I am a huge fan of ghost stories and sightings. When I went to Washington DC, years ago, I bought a book of ghost stories and read it from time to time. There are some fascinating ghosts roaming the city.

    posted by Andi on 10-21-2010 at 8:36 am

  7. Sorry to be the voice of reason, Andi, but there aren’t. There really, really aren’t.

    And there’s my buzz-kill for the day.

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 9:29 am

  8. @TBV- I’ll kill your buzz-kill and ask how do you “know” there aren’t any ghosts? Logic says you cannot prove a negative and the lack of evidence of one existing does not mean one does not exist.

    And there is my buzz-kill kill for the day. =)

    posted by Scott-O on 10-21-2010 at 9:52 am

  9. Boo TBV.

    I love stories like these. I had the privilege of spending time in a reportedly haunted house when I was quite young (less than 7), and had an experience that could only be attributed to the kind spirit who occupied the house. She turned on a light for me. :) [A woman had been murdered, possibly by her lover, when the former plantation home was being used as an inn in the late 1800's. My grandparents lived there for many years in the early 1970's.]

    posted by Karen on 10-21-2010 at 9:54 am

  10. Great post. I think we need a part 2 that tries to outline the timeline for when Lincoln’s ghost was seen. If he’s seen on the day before a national tragedy, can anyone gives specifics to the events correlating to each sighting?

    posted by Darren on 10-21-2010 at 10:18 am

  11. TBV—there’s a little something coming up you may have heard about—Halloween…BOO!

    posted by Wayne on 10-21-2010 at 10:21 am

  12. Scott-o, the lack of evidence of the existence of ghosts does EXACTLY mean that they don’t exist.

    Otherwise, you could claim that unicorns, fairies, trolls, man-bear-pigs, zombies, and leprechauns exist, because they’ve never been proven to NOT exist.

    And don’t get me wrong, I love a good ghost story as much as the next person, but they’re fantasies. If this was a site about fun stories, I’d keep my yap shut. But I always considered the Floss (and Flossers) to be smarter than that.

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 10:21 am

  13. I love ghost stories. Especially in October.

    posted by Sara in Al on 10-21-2010 at 10:27 am

  14. @TBV, just curious, does witness testimony not count as evidence in your view, then? I’m a bit of a skeptic myself, but I still keep an open mind, and I find it hard to believe that every single person who has reported a sighting is lying or mistaken.

    posted by Jina on 10-21-2010 at 10:33 am

  15. Great post! I love hearing about ghost that haunt famous places and their stories :)

    posted by Kristina on 10-21-2010 at 10:41 am

  16. TBV- You can think what you want and I will think what I want. I choose to believe that ghosts and spirits are out there.

    posted by Andi on 10-21-2010 at 10:44 am

  17. Good point, Jina. But for something’s existence to be proven, I would consider EMPIRICAL evidence to be vital. I mean, it only makes sense… if you want to PROVE something, you need evidence that’s testable, recreate-able, and, well, PROVABLE.

    And isn’t “keeping an open mind” to the existence of something like ghosts actually CLOSING your mind to the sciences that preclude its existence?

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 10:49 am

  18. @TBV, your bit about “I always considered the Floss (and Flossers) to be smarter than that” is a low blow.

    It is fine for you to disagree, but not to insult someone’s intelligence for their beliefs.

    posted by Katie Rose on 10-21-2010 at 11:19 am

  19. I agree with Darren…I’d love to see a Lincoln’s ghost timeline.

    Has anyone seen any of this stuff recently? Nancy Reagen was the most recent one I saw in this post.

    posted by KerriD on 10-21-2010 at 11:27 am

  20. TBV- does that mean if it didn’t happen to you, it didn’t happen? I’m pretty certain that there is a ghost in my house, i’ve only seen a shadow out of the corner of my eye but I feel a presence in my hall when I know nobody is there? Just because I can’t PROVE it, does that mean I’m an idiot or I’m crazy?

    posted by Melanie on 10-21-2010 at 11:34 am

  21. @TBV–I’m with you, which, as someone with very frequent interaction with ghosts, should be saying something.

    I grew up in a “haunted” house, and have personally seen three distinct and separate ghosts on numerous occasions. Does that mean I think all ghosts everywhere are ghosts? No. I’m not even sold on the ones I’ve seen. For one, I have heard that they could just be hallucinations brought on by carbon monoxide in the house (we have had issues with it), as well as “shared” hallucinations because we share these stories amongst ourselves, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we force each other to “see” what we think should be or could be there.

    To convince me that echoes of people in intangible forms are roaming the world for no apparent reason some much more conclusive evidence would have to be found in retest-able ways (i.e. Ghosthunters, as much as I love the show, just doesn’t cut it).

    And also people, don’t misquote Carl Sagan and use logical fallacies to defend your stance that “lack of proof is not proof of absence.” As with God, it is not on the negative to be proven–it is on the positive. This is why the defense does not have to prove that their client is innocent. They don’t have to prove “I did not…”, prosecution has to prove “he/she did.”

    That said, I do love ghost stories, and these are great ones. They should get the Ghost Hunters over there. Of course, it might make President Obama look silly to promote science with Mythbusters only to promote pseudoscience with Ghosthunters….

    posted by Anne on 10-21-2010 at 11:34 am

  22. Sorry for my above typos – rushing to type while on break at work :)

    posted by Melanie on 10-21-2010 at 11:35 am

  23. I must be one of the “smarter people who read MF”, I’ve never actually seen TBV, so I don’t believe TBV really exists…

    posted by Wayne on 10-21-2010 at 11:44 am

  24. Wow. I really didn’t expect to be in the minority here.

    Perhaps this is one of those things (like religion and politics) where evidence to the contrary only strengthens my ones belief.

    So how about them wood-nymphs?!

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 11:56 am

  25. TBV, I like that you used your “peace-making” comment even more offensive. Very classy.

    I personally don’t like to think i believe in ghosts, but I do love hearing the stories! Every October, I pretty much wreck myself over them to the point where I sleep with a computer monitor on. The history behind these ghosts is just too good to pass up!

    posted by Lindsay on 10-21-2010 at 1:08 pm

  26. @TBV – nope, keeping an open mind means that, while scientifically I have my doubts that ghosts exist, I accept that there is a possibility that I am wrong.

    By your arguments, witness testimony in a court of law would be useless, and in fact having a trial or justice system is useless, since a crime (especially those that come down to he-said, she-said, like rape) can never be 100% accurately re-created or tested, and therefore we’ll never know for sure what happened so how can we judge who is guilty and who is innocent? Not all cases have irrefutable circumstantial evidence or reliable data.

    posted by Jina on 10-21-2010 at 1:14 pm

  27. Ooh, I love a good ghost story in October.

    Also, if you want to be freaked out go to the American Electronic Voice Phenomenon website. AHHHH!!!!

    I hate it when people who get pushy about their belief that something (God, Santa Claus, Loch Ness Monster) may or may not exist. “I’m right because I think I’m right.”

    You may be right or not, you can’t prove it either way. Why ruin people’s fun? If someone gets enjoyment or meaning in something you find illogical, what’s it to you?

    It screams insecurity to me because only an insecure person finds validation in demeaning other people and what they believe.

    posted by Kelly Mc on 10-21-2010 at 1:22 pm

  28. Lindsay, I meant neither to be offensive nor classy. My flippant comment was meant in jest, that’s all. I apologize if I offended you.

    Jina, I respectfully disagree w/ your definition of an “open mind”. Acceptance of the paranormal is not acceptance that you might be wrong. It’s acceptance that science/physics/logic might be wrong. And I don’t believe that it is, nor should any “Knowledge Junkie”.

    You make an interesting point comparing science to the burden of proof in a court of law. In court, the person bringing the claim MUST prove his/her case. You can’t state “he’s guilty because it’s what I believe” (thank goodness). The burden of proof lies with the accuser. When this standard is applied to the paranormal, those who claim its veracity MUST provide the proof. Anne’s post above makes this point better than I can.

    Kelly Mc, sorry if I’m one of the “pushy” ones. But I was merely voicing opposition to Andi who wrote, “There are some fascinating ghosts roaming (Washington, DC).” And though I’m sure I have as many insecurities as the next person, I don’t believe I demeaned anyone. At least I didn’t mean to. In fact, I agree whole-heartedly with those who love a good ghost story. I dig monster movies and can’t get enough of science fiction. But they’re not real.

    I do enjoy these sorts of discussions. But if I’m beating a dead horse, I’ll let it go.

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 2:15 pm

  29. Let it go. And don’t read a post about ghost stories and then complain about it.

    posted by Shannon O. on 10-21-2010 at 2:39 pm

  30. TBV,

    I respect your position and resent your lack of respect for others who feel differently.

    There are many things in this world that were thought to be “fantasy” before proven. Diseases were thought to be caused by demons before the discovery of germs.

    There are many things in this world that we have yet to understand. To close your mind to even the possibility is to prevent the expansion of our world if we can develop ways of detecting things we cannot currently experience. Much the way many denied the exsistance of germs before the development of the microscope that allowed them to be seen.

    posted by Sneezy on 10-21-2010 at 3:00 pm

  31. @TBV, so being OPEN to the possibility that science and I are wrong and that ghosts do in fact exist is not being open-minded? What, pray tell, is, then?

    Honestly, you remind me of vegetarians who go around telling everyone how awful they are for going around eating meat. “I don’t believe this, therefore no intelligent person should!” Isn’t one hallmark of intelligence the ability to think for yourself and form your own opinions?

    And also, you never actually answered the direct question I asked you, about whether you would discount witness testimony as evidence. Not that it matters, since I have no interest in carrying on a discussion with someone who is openly condescending and – dare I say it? – so close-minded.

    posted by Jina on 10-21-2010 at 3:21 pm

  32. Yes, Sneezy, diseases were thought to be demons. Before science. Now we’re to disregard science and go back to the ways of demons (and ghosts)?

    Jina, I love the “vegetarians” analogy! Touche! Forgive the condescension; none was intended. It was only my attempt at a discussion of “science vs superstition”, meant in good fun, but obviously delivered poorly (by me).

    I have been instructed to let it go, so I shall.

    Happy Halloween to all!

    posted by TBV on 10-21-2010 at 3:48 pm

  33. I agree with Katie Rose, it’s not cool to say Flossers aren’t smart because of what was posted in the above list. Also TBV I can’t speak for the others but for me just the fact that you consider your disbelief a “buzz-kill” is well just like telling a 3 yr old there’s no Santa, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy. At the risk of sounding like everyone else adding their two cents to your opinon even if there aren’t any ghosts in the White House or anywhere else in the world it still makes for a good story.

    posted by Rina on 10-21-2010 at 4:32 pm

  34. ooops I guess I should have read your last comment all the way through. You have let it go. I’m sorry TBV.

    posted by Rina on 10-21-2010 at 4:34 pm

  35. OOohh I second Darren! More Lincoln please!

    posted by ovaryacting on 10-21-2010 at 5:17 pm

  36. LOL Winston Churchill kicks ass

    posted by xanderjones on 10-21-2010 at 6:39 pm

  37. This story about the White House being haunted is so interesting,for I do believe in ghosts.They are here because they have unfinished business to take care of.

    posted by Millie Boucher on 10-21-2010 at 10:26 pm

  38. Actually, TBV, I’m with you as well. The comments have been rather educational about demonstrating the difficulties with addressing bad thinking.

    Just because someone “loves ghost stories” isn’t an adequate reason to accept them uncritically – it’s actually a very good reason to be even more critical of them, because desire can blind us to objectivity.

    It’s very seriously disturbing to see people defending something based on “belief” – we should be well past such inane justifications by now. It’s also disturbing to hear someone say, “Well if you don’t like them, don’t read them.” I’m sorry, letting people continue with bad behavior is irresponsible. Expressing your opinion (that one should keep quiet and leave others alone) is exactly the same as expressing an opinion over how bad such behavior is. Who gets to judge?

    Jina, you need to work on the idea of “open-mindedness.” Critical thinking doesn’t just involve happily accepting whatever someone might say because you can’t establish otherwise. It involves weighing what has been proposed in light of everything that is known, and already established as possible or probable.Have you considered, for instance, that skeptics virtually never see ghosts? That no measurable traits exist, but our senses, which are hardly remarkable in any way, supposedly detect them? That ghosts somehow seem to accomplish absolutely nothing, much less imparting knowledge that is somehow useful?

    And yes, I will happily dismiss eyewitness accounts, because I actually have more than passing knowledge of how phenomenally bad eyewitnesses are at determining pertinent details. Suggestiveness plays a major role in such stories, and our literature is rife with them. The “odd shape” out of the corner of the eye suddenly gets turned into something else, especially in a building with a history. There are lots of ways this takes affect, which is why empirical evidence is relied on in the first place.

    Stories are just that – stories. Accepting them as fun, spooky, or appropriate to the season is one thing. It’s another entirely to treat them as fact, or evidence. And it’s pretty discouraging to see such a message get treated with derision. If you can’t handle someone questioning your worldview, you aren’t grown up yet.

    posted by Just Al on 10-21-2010 at 10:28 pm

  39. I’m curious about the Lincoln sightings too. I wonder if anyone in the White House saw him the night of September 10, 2001?

    posted by Carole on 10-25-2010 at 11:52 am

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