11/06/2022
The most famous address in the United States — 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. — is also famously haunted. Since 1800, the White House has been the home of the president of the United States, starting with the second president, John Adams — and the ghost of his wife, Abigail Adams, has been seen there, sometimes walking through walls or carrying laundry to dry in the East Room, according to History.com(opens in new tab). The ghost of the third president, Thomas Jefferson, has been heard playing the violin in the Yellow Oval Room. The ghost of the seventh president, Andrew Jackson, is said to have been seen lying on his old bed, while the sound of his "guttural laugh" has often been reported, including by first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The ninth president, William Henry Harrison, is said to haunt the attic of the White House, while the 10th president, John Tyler, is said to haunt the Blue Room.
Many of the ghostly sightings and events revolve around Abraham Lincoln; the ghost of the assassinated 16th president has been reported so many times that the phrase "Lincoln's ghost" has become well known. Some of the most famous of these events are multiple sightings in 1940 by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was spending a night in the Lincoln Bedroom. Churchill claimed to have just climbed out of the bath, naked but smoking his habitual cigar, when he encountered Lincoln's ghost leaning on the mantelpiece above the fireplace, according to a blog entry by the National Constitution Center(opens in new tab), a U.S. nonprofit. Churchill said, "Good evening, Mr. President; you seem to have me at a disadvantage," and then the ghost smiled and disappeared. (Churchill said he then moved to a bedroom across the hall.)
Two years later, in 1942, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands reported seeing Lincoln's ghost, dressed in a top hat and frock coat, standing at the door of her bedroom during a visit to the White House — and fainted at the sight. Many others — including U.S. Presidents Harry S. Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, first ladies Grace Coolidge and Eleanor Roosevelt, and dozens of White House aides and staffers — have reported seeing apparitions or hearing ghostly footsteps or knocks that they have attributed to Lincoln's ghost..