Washington is a ghost town

October 10, 5:04 PMDC Art Travel ExaminerMarsha Dubrow

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     The nation's capital is a ghost town, one of the country's most haunted cities.

     Ghosts have been seen for centuries in the White House, the US Capitol Building, the Hay Adams Hotel, and other landmarks. And not just any ghosts, but apparitions of Abraham Lincoln, Dolley Madison, "Star Spangled Banner" composer Francis Scott Key, Members of Congress, and a "Demon Cat" a.k.a. "D.C." who appears just before a national tragedy  or a change in Administrations.

     This isn't yet another joke about President Bush, or the Presidential candidates, or even Congress.  And it's nothing new.     Back in 1891, the Washington Star reported "Washington is the greatest town for ghosts in this country!"

     The White House has a Web page entitled "Ghosts of the White House" complete with, count 'em, five videos:   "I hung out with President Lincoln", "Doors Suddenly Closing", "Bumps in the night", "A Halloween Prank", and "Lincoln bedroom".

     Most of the encounters have involved Abraham Lincoln's ghost.  In one of the videos, White House operations staffer Tony Savoy described seeing Lincoln dressed typically, down to his "three-buttoned spats". But "When I blinked, he was gone."

     Dennis Freemyer, a White House assistant usher, described turning off the chandelier in the Lincoln bedroom only to see that, somehow, it turned back on. When Freemyer turned it off again, "Without doubt, I could feel a very cold presence," he said in one of the videos. "It's an experience I'll never forget."  

     Gary Walters, White House former chief usher, says that he and three police officers saw two doors -- that are always open at the White House -- close suddenly,  and the men felt "a cool rush of air". They all checked, but found no cause for the doors closing or for the rush of air, Walters said in "Doors Suddenly Closing" and on the ghosts Web page.  

     Other ghostly sightings have been Abigail Adams doing laundry in the East Room, and Dolley Madison thwarting fellow First Lady Edith Wilson's plans to dig up the Rose Garden, Walters added.

     Both ushers' comments evoked memories of Poe's famed short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" which begins, "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn...I know not how it was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit..."    

     What I find even eerier than Poe's short story and the videos is that President Bush and Vice President Cheney both dress up their dogs in Halloween costumes.  First fido Barney went as "official first cowboy" last Halloween, joined by India as a wizard and Miss Beazley as a strawberry for "a Boo-tiful Halloween", according to White House photo captions of the bewitching Scotties. Last year, Cheney's Labrador retrievers went, no surprise, as Superman for dog Dave, while pooch Jackson went as Darth Vader, helmet included.

     "Spoooooky," as Dame Edna would say. 

     "But I digress," as Bette Midler would say.

     I'll add this year's canine costumes, and an official update on any White House hauntings if and when the press office returns my call.  Understandably, Halloween is hardly a Presidential priority in these frightening times.

     Meanwhile, the latest authoritative source to comment on White House ghosts was first twin Jenna Bush, now Jenna Hager.  She has said she felt the White House was "filled with millions of ghosts."  The President's daughter fessed up to Texas Monthly Magazine that when she was living in the White House, she and twin Barbara heard ghostly sounds "of 1950's piano music.  People will think I'm crazy for saying that."

     That sparked Dave Letterman's list "Top ten signs there's a ghost in the White House".  Unauthoritative, of course.

     One least-likely White House haunter is Harry Truman who once wrote to his daughter Margaret, "No man in his right mind would want to come here (to the White House) of his own accord."

     The US Capitol Building is purportedly even more haunted than the White House. Late at night, especially at midnight one New Year's Eve, statues of former Members of Congress have been seen dancing in Statuary Hall, according to Ghosts Washington Revisited by John Alexander (Schiffer Books). The ghost of John Quincy Adams, who served as a Congressman after his presidency, has been seen giving a speech. Adams, known as "the Old Man Eloquent" suffered a deadly stroke in the midst of a floor speech against "a most unrighteous war", the Mexican-American War. 

      Congressman-turned-minister William Taulbee's apparition has been sighted at the spot where newspaper reporter Charles Kincaid fatally shot him in 1890 during an argument over Kincaid's reportage.  The  blood stains on marble steps near the House Press Gallery have never disappeared. The Demon Cat who allegedly swells to tiger-size prowls predominantly the House side, but the Senate side has its share of ghost tales.

     Associate Historian of the Senate Donald Ritchie told me, "Politicians are really powerful people, and their presence can be felt. If Henry Clay is anywhere, and LBJ, they'd be walking the floors of the Capitol."  Ritchie tells people to make up their own mind about ghosts.

     I saw no ghosts throughout the years I worked as a Senate Committee Press Secretary, and as a Correspondent covering Congress. However, working such long hours, I became a ghost of my former self.

     Other hot spots for ghostly sightings, noted in Ghosts Washington Revisited, include:

     -- The Hay Adams Hotel. Formerly the homes of John Hay, Lincoln biographer, and Henry Adams whose wife Clover committed suicide in 1885.  A sobbing lady  is seen occasionally at the elegant hotel. A remaining mystery is why Clover's husband did not mention her or their marriage in his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Education of Henry Adams.

    -- The Octagon House, designed by the architect of the US Capitol William Thornton and used by President James Madison after the White House was burned by the British in the War of 1812.  Dolley Madison is sensed here smelling of lilacs, her favored scent.  The home's enormous chandelier occasionally "swings of its own volition", an Octagon curator told the Star in 1965. Another mystery is why the stately six-sided home is called The Octagon.

        And now, a rhetorical question:  aren't things scary enough in Washington these days even without these ghosts?