HGB Ep. 618 - The Capitol Building

Moment in Oddity - Claire Sylvia Transplant Recipient (Suggested by: Tammie Burroughs)

In 1988, 47 year old professional dancer Claire Sylvia was dying from primary pulmonary hypertension. She required a heart-lung transplant. Her story gained international interest as she was the first person in New England to be a recipient of the procedure. Her donor was an 18 year old male that had passed away in a motorcycle accident. Post surgery Claire began to experience some unusual and uncharacteristic behaviors. She suddenly craved beer, chicken nuggets and green peppers. These were foods she had never liked before. Her energy levels heightened drastically which could have been due to the younger heart that she had received, but she also became much more assertive. Even her manner of walking changed, becoming heavier and more masculine in nature. Sylvia began having vivid dreams after her transplant. She dreamed of a tall young man whose name was Tim and his last name began with an L. In the dream Claire said,  "we kiss, and as we do I inhale him into me. It feels like the deepest breath I have ever taken. And I know at that moment the two of us, Tim and I, will be together forever. I woke up knowing - really knowing - that Tim L was my donor and that some parts of his spirit and personality were now in me." Eventually Claire was able to track down the family of her donor and Tim's family confirmed his love of the foods that she suddenly craved, as well as other new personality traits. Claire Sylvia chronicled her journey in her 1997 memoir, "A Change of Heart," which was later adapted into the TV movie 'Heart of a Stranger' starring Jane Seymour. Sylvia lived for 21 years after her transplant, becoming a prominent advocate for organ donation before passing away in 2009 at the age of 69. Surprisingly, her experience is not a unique one. There are many stories of transplant recipients taking on the characteristics of their donor's, but one can imagine, experiencing it personally, certainly would be odd.

The Capitol Building

The Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. is the heart of our American government. Both houses of Congress meet here to pass the laws of the land. The building is over 200 years old and has changed through the decades. While this just seems to be a standard government building, there is a lot of symbolism connected to the structure and its location. And there were rituals too. Could that be why this is one of the most haunted buildings in Washington, D.C.? Join us for the history and hauntings of the Capitol Building.

The United States Capitol is no longer the geographic center of the national capital, but it is the center of the American government. The location was chosen on what is known today as Capitol Hill, but when Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant designed the capital city, he called this Jenkins Hill. This was named for a man who had owned nearby pasture land, Thomas Jenkins. The tract where the actual Capitol would be built was owned by the Carroll family and they had called it Rome - kinda fitting. Thomas Jefferson would give Capitol Hill its name and was influenced by the Temple of Jupiter on Rome's Capitoline Hill. This was finally an opportunity for the government of the United States to have a set house for making laws or the Legislative Branch. Prior to this, representatives met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Federal Hall in New York City and other places in Maryland and New Jersey. L'Enfant originally called the building the Congress House and he secured quarries in Virginia to get stone for use in the foundation and outer walls of the Capitol. L'Enfant was dismissed from the project in early 1792 and so Thomas Jefferson proposed a design competition and this was won by an amateur architect named William Thornton in January of 1793. Thornton was actually a doctor from the British Virgin Islands. The design was praised for being simplistic, but also grand and beautiful. The architectural design was Neoclassical. 

(Record scratch) And here would be a good time to dig out our conspiratorial hats and talk about the Secret Society elements connected to the Capitol building and Washington, D.C. in general. The Capitol was placed in a very strategic spot. Many of the Founding Fathers were members of various secret societies and the Freemasons in particular. L'Enfant was as well and when he mapped out the future District of Columbia, he incorporated the symbols of masonry into that design. These include the square and compass and various geometric patterns like triangles, squares, circles, pentagrams and hexagrams. The Golden Ratio was used and the Capitol was built to represent a womb. The Washington Monument was the obvious phallic symbol to go with the womb and the structures sit across from each other. President George Washington was a Freemason and he lead a masonic ritual while laying the cornerstone for the Capitol. This ceremony took place on September 18, 1793 Several of the items used during this ceremony still exist today and continue to be used during the placement of foundation stones at other official buildings. Members of the Masonic lodges from Maryland, Virginia, Georgetown and Federal City joined Washington. A silversmith from Georgetown fashinoned a silver plaque and gave it to Washington to lay down on the corner before the cornerstone was placed. The plaque was inscribed with a tribute to Washington and dedication of the building in the "first year, of the second term, of the presidency of George Washington ... and in the year of Masonry 5,793." After the stone was laid, Washington struck it three times with a gavel as the gathered Masons chanted. Three Worshipful Masters presented sacrifices of corn, wine, and oil and a 15-gun salute followed to represent the 15 states at the time. An invocation was given and a 500 pound ox was sacrificed. There is more when we get to the interior of the Capitol.

Thornton served as the first architect of the Capitol, but his original plan was altered by French architect Stephen Hallet who had also sent in a design, but lost because his design was too elaborate. The commissioners brought Hallet onto the project as an act of goodwill, but this turned out to be really stupid. Hallet was jealous and spent most of his time obstructing and altering Thornton's design and the men fought often. This pushed building back and caused many delays and after investigating what was holding things up, Hallet was dismissed. 

White House architect James Hoban was brought on as the new supervisor. Two other architects, Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Charles Bulfinch, would eventually be brought on to help finish the project. The north wing, which is the Senate's side, was completed first in 1800 and so the House shared that for awhile in an area that was dubbed the "Oven." The south wing would be completed in 1811. The rotunda and dome were not done at that point. Something most people probably don't know is that the Capitol was used for Sunday church services in the early 1800s. The reason why the construction took longer on these wings is because early building was poorly done and within six years, plaster was already peeling, the roof was leaking and the floors were rotting, so everything on the interior had to be demolished and rebuilt. Benjamin Henry Latrobe had been brought in to do this because he had done a great job on the Supreme Court building and his creation of the vaulted, semi-circular ceiling in that building had not been done in America before. Latrobe would be responsible for much of what made up the interior including painting the walls and ceiling in blue and straw yellow, carvings and columns and velvet drapes were placed on the windows. He also shipped in mahogany furniture. Italian sculptors were offered three dollars a day to carve the capitals and frieze, which depicts an enormous eagle and allegorical figures of Liberty, Science, and Art. 

In 1814, the British destroyed all of the beautiful carvings in the Capitol when they fired cannon balls at the public buildings in Washington, DC. Residents' efforts to put out the fires were unsuccessful until the sky opened up with torrential rain. The Library of Congress inside the Capitol had been destroyed along with everything except a few walls that had been left blackened. 

There was a worry that the new government would decide to leave the burned district. President James Madison had also fled the district. Many wealthy people in the area had invested in land speculation around the new capital and they had vested interest in the government staying here, so they dug into their own pockets to begin the rebuild of Washington, D.C. President Madison hoped that the Capitol would be rebuilt in a couple years. The past laughed at his hopes and indeed, the Capitol took decades to come back due to labor disputes and work stoppages. Benjamin Latrobe had been called back for the rebuild and he eventually resigned over criticism after completing the north and south wings. The central part of the Capitol had still never been finished. This was when architect Charles Bulfinch of Boston was brought in and he realized that the President at the time, Monroe, and other politicians didn't understand the blueprints. So he built scale models. One of them had this immense dome over a Rotunda and Bulfinch wasn't crazy about this design. He tried to downplay it, but everybody loved it and even asked to have it enlarged. This was completed in 1830 and was bigger than any of the architects from Thornton to Bulfinch had ever wanted.  

Robert Mills became the Capitol Architect in 1836, while Andrew Jackson was President. Jackson realized that the Capitol was getting too small as more states were added to the country, bringing more representatives to D.C. He developed a plan to increase the size, but was dismissed by the next president, Millard Fillmore, who brought on Thomas U. Walter in 1851 and Walter would triple the size of the Capitol by the time he left in 1865. 

One thing he did was replace the Bulfinch dome with an even bigger one that was made from iron. This took some ingenuity to get in place considering there weren't things like cranes back then. The dome was placed on thirty-six Corinthian columns that represented the 36 states at the time. Interior craftsmanship was done by Italian artisans once again and this included the Chariot of History clock above the entrance of Statuary Hall, the Statue of Liberty in Statuary Hall, figures representing Peace and War at the entrance to the Rotunda and a carved relief of George Washington in the Rotunda. But the grandest artwork was completed by Constantino Brumidi on the interior of the Rotunda dome. Looking up inside the Capitol dome, visitors find the Apotheosis of Washington. It's a weird massive fresco covering the entire interior of the Capitol dome, which measures 4,664 square feet. The word Apotheosis means "raising someone to divine status" and that is what this is doing for President George Washington, raising him to the level of a god. This was completed in 1865 and depicts George Washington, draped in royal purple, ascending to the heavens as he is surrounded by allegorical scenes. These scenes are meant to reflect America's accomplishments in War, Science, Marine, Commerce, Mechanics, and Agriculture. The original 13 colonies are represented by female figures and Washington is flanked by Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap and Victory holding a palm branch. War is represented by the goddess of wisdom, Minerva, and cannons. Science is also represented by Minerva and she is joined by the inventors Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Morse and there is also an electric generator. Marine has Neptune and Venus with a telegraph cable. Commerce is represented by Mercury who is joined by merchants and Robert Morris. Mechanics has Vulcan standing at a forge with workers. Agriculture has Ceres with a cornucopia and a McCormick reaper for harvesting. 

New York artist Thomas Crawford created the Statue of Freedom that graces the top of the Capitol dome. The statue is made from bronze and stands nearly 20 feet tall and is a female that resembles Columbia, which is the personification of America. The statue holds a sheathed sword in its right hand and a laurel wreath of victory and the Shield of the United States in her left. Atop her head is a military helmut with stars and an eagle's head crowned with feathers. She faces the rising sun. Crawford also designed the beautiful bronze doors of the House wing and carved the figures on the east pediment of the Senate wing. 

Another piece of artwork added to the Capitol was also dripping in symbolism and very controversial. This was known as Enthroned Washington and was crafted by Horatio Greenough. The controversy came from the fact that President Washington was depicted half-naked seated on a throne. This 12-ton marble statue was inspired by Phidias' great statue of Zeus. The President is wrapped in a toga as if to look like a Roman emperor and he is pointing up the sky. Many people equate this position to depictions of Baphomet, the goat-headed occult icon and it really is quite similar. Washington holds a sheathed sword in his other hand. There was so much negative reaction to the sculpture that it was removed from the Rotunda and now is located at the National Museum of American History as part of the Smithsonian.

In 1961, an extension was added to the Capitol's midsection. A Capitol Visitor Center was built under the Capitol and finished in 2008. The dome was refurbished in 2016. Today, the Capitol building is the second-oldest public structure in D.C. and has 540 rooms throughout two wings. Office buildings were added over time and the entire complex encompasses two hundred acres. Tours are offered six days a week and are free. Exhibition Hall offers interactive exhibits and a virtual tour. The grounds are beautiful and were originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the mid-1870s.

Some interesting factoids about the Capitol include Samuel Morse sending the world's first telegraph message from it. President John Quincy Adams died of a stroke in Statuary Hall in 1848. Preston Brooks was a US representative in 1856 when he attacked Senator Charles Sumner and brutally beat him with his cane. What was the fight over? Slavery. Brooks supported it and Sumner opposed it. President Andrew Jackson was almost assassinated outside the east entrance in 1835. The Capitol has faced violence throughout the decades and has been damaged several times by fires, cannons and bombs. Perhaps that is why there are said to be ghosts here at the Capitol building. And you don't have to take our word for it. The Philadelphia Press wrote in October of 1898 that the Capitol is "the most thoroughly haunted building in the world." One reason for hauntings is connected to a legend about John Lenthall. He served as Benjamin Latrobe's Clerk of the Works. Lenthall was charged with building an archway, but it was a design he was unfamiliar with and when he removed the supports, the arch collapsed on top of him. This story is true. The legend part comes with his dying breath. He is said to have cursed the Capitol building. His spirit is said to hang out near the Old Supreme Court Chamber where that ceiling collapse happened. 

There is a ghost cat here, often referred to as the Demon Cat. The first sighting of it goes all the way back to 1862. Union soldiers were camping out in the Capitol at that time and some of them claimed to see this black cat that would grow to this huge size before pouncing on a victim. There are actual paw prints in the floor of the Capitol and no one knows where they came from and that is perhaps how this legend got started. When the cat appears, it usually signifies that a national tragedy is coming. The cat was seen before President Lincoln was assassinated, before the Stock Market crashed in 1929 and before President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. 

Bishop Sims was a barber who worked at a congressional barber shop located in the Capitol. This shop was eventually moved to the Russell Senate Building, but Sims worked there before that in the 1930s. Bishop was his nickname because he was very involved in his church. Everyone said he gave the best haircuts and President Calvin Coolidge tried to get him to come work at the White House, but Sims liked the Capitol, so he stayed there until his death in 1934. He used to hum hymns as he worked and his ghost is said to carry on humming hymns in the afterlife.

We mentioned earlier that President John Quincy Adams had a stroke in the Capitol and died. Adams had gone back to be a Representative after his term as President came to an end. There was a measure before the House to honor officers who served in the Mexican-American War when Adams died. He had been staunchly against the war because he believed it was an effort to expand slavery with a land grab. As the roll call vote came to Adams, he yelled "NO!", turned white and slumped over from a stroke. He was taken to the Speaker's Room where he died two days later. He was 80. People claim to see his spirit here and to hear his emphatic "NO" echoing through the halls. 

John A. Logan was an Illinois politician who became a Union Major Genera; during the Civil War. People called him the political general. He had key roles at both the battle of Vicksburg and Battle of Atlanta. Logan championed veterans' rights after the war and he issued the order that led to Decoration Day or what we now call Memorial Day. He served as a Senator and ran as a Vice-Presidential candidate with James Blaine in 1884. In 1886, he was stricken with a weird ailment just as Congress opened its session. Logan's arms swelled and his legs hurt and this lasted several days and then went away. It returned a few days later and doctors were stumped. All they could tell him was that he was going to die probably and he did a couple weeks later. Logan's body laid in state in the Capitol. His ghostly figure has been seen in the old Military Affairs Committee room. 

Our final known ghost here is said to belong to Congressman William Taulbee. Taulbee had represented Kentucky, but at the time of his murder, he was working as a lobbyist. A newspaper journalist named Charles Kincaid, wrote for the Louisville Times and he had a strained relationship with Taulbee. Their volatile relationship started in 1887 and for the next three years, the men traded insults with each other. It seems to have started with Kincaid reporting on Taulbee having an affair and this forced Taulbee to not seek re-election. Both worked in the Capitol often and were often heard arguing with each other. On February 28, 1890, the two men were again in a fight and it got so intense, House doorkeepers had to separate them. Taulbee told Kincaid that he better arm himself, basically threatening that he would kill the man. So Kincaid got a gun and when he met up later with Taulbee on the east staircase of the House Wing of the Capitol, he pulled out the gun and shot Taulbee who died a couple weeks later. The papers wrote, "For the first time in the memory of man a gunshot was heard in the National Capitol today, and the marble steps of the staircase leading from the House floor to the restaurant below were stained with human blood." Kincaid was acquitted on self defense. There are still blood stains on the stairs today. The former Congressman's ghost has been seen and people claim he likes to trip reporters, especially on these stairs. 

The Capitol Building has seen a lot of America's history in its time and has not only been witness to strife and victory, but it has been involved in nearly every federal law of the land. It would only make sense that such an important building would have its spirits. Is the Capitol Building haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB EP. 593 - Haunted Foggy Bottom

Moment in Oddity - Tasmanian Devil Births

Many of our listeners are familiar with Taz, the Tasmanian devil from the Looney Toons cartoons. The real life carnivorous marsupials live exclusively on the island of Tasmania. There are over 330 species of marsupials in the world but there is one not-so-fun, fun-fact about Tasmanian Devils that makes them quite unique. Tasmanian Devils have a rear facing pouch. This orientation keeps them from filling their pouches with dirt as they dig their burrows. That detail of their bodily orientation is not entirely strange however. Other burrowing species of marsupials such as wombats and quolls also have rear facing pouches for the same reason. What is so unusual about the devils, is the fact that on average, they give birth to between 20 and 40 babies all at once while only having 4 teats in their pouch. The underdeveloped babies latch on to their mother's teats for approximately 3 months while they mature. This means that regardless of how many babies are born, it is highly unlikely that any given litter would number higher than four. Once the mad dash to their mother's teats has ended and four babies have successfully latched on, the remaining baby devils, known as joeys, perish by either starving or by being eaten by their mother. The joeys will begin leaving their mother's pouch at around 3 1/2 months and often will ride on her back while young. Tasmanian devil joeys stay with their mother until about 9 months old. Survival of the fittest is common in wild animals, but having to defy such high odds in the animal kingdom, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Birth of P.T. Barnum

In the month of July, on the 5th in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut. At the age of 15, P.T. Barnum's father died which led to him holding a variety of jobs to help support his mother and five siblings. He eventually became a publisher at a local weekly newspaper and by the age of  19, he married 21 year old Charity Hallett with whom he had four daughters. After moving to New York City in 1834 he began his adventures as a showman, inviting the world to come and witness Joice Heth, a black woman who Barnum stated, "was the 161 year old nurse to General George Washington". Upon the death of the woman it was of course revealed to be a hoax. Barnum later acquired John Scudder's American Museum in New York City. He quickly transformed the traditional location to display instead human curiosities, dramatic theatricals, beauty contests and other spectacular attractions. P.T. Barnum once wrote, "This is a trading world, and men, women, and children, who cannot live on gravity alone, need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is in a business established by the Author of our nature". Barnum traveled the world looking for oddities, living or dead, real or fake and garnered international attention for the showman's showcase of wonders. Many famous people in history attended his unique and sensational creation. Despite his name being popularly linked with the circus, P.T. did not actually become a circus showman until after the age of 60. Where he continued to work until his death in 1891 at his Connecticut mansion. The Times of London paid the late Showman tribute stating, "He created the métier of showman on a grandiose scale.…He early realized that essential feature of a modern democracy, its readiness to be led to what will amuse and instruct it.…His name is a proverb already, and a proverb it will continue."

Haunted Foggy Bottom

Washington, D.C. is the home of the American government and every square inch of it oozes history. Shockingly, we haven't covered many haunted locations in the Capitol City, despite its extensive history. So it was definitely time to investigate what else is haunted in this city and we found a neighborhood with multiple ghost stories. Foggy Bottom dates back to the mid-1700s, but it would take nearly 100 years before people would settle here and these were mostly laborers. There were two grand homes here, one of which still stands and both reputedly were haunted. And there are a couple of legends connected to the area as well. Join us for the history and hauntings of Foggy Bottom.

Foggy Bottom started out as Funkstown, nicknamed for German settler Jacob Funck who originally owned the plot and subdivided it. The official name of the settlement was Hamburgh and it stretched over an area near the confluence of Rock Creek and the Potomac River. Jacob joined Robert Peter and James Linigan in officially founding the town in 1765. They would control it until 1791 when the territories were given to the city of Washington and the United States government. The town hadn't been very prosperous for them anyway, as few settlers would come. When the second phase of the industrial revolution brought factories to Washington, D.C., immigrants started coming and the neighborhoods filled with laborers. They worked in the gas works, breweries and glass plants and the industrial smoke that came off these facilities made the city seem foggy, thus the name Foggy Bottom was associated with the neighborhood. One of the beers that came out of Olde Heurich Brewing Company was called Foggy Bottom. The brewery ceased operations in 1956 and the building was razed to make room for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Foggy Bottom would become home for a variety of government institutions. The U.S. Department of State was established as the Department of Foreign Affairs in July of 1789 and the name change to State came a few months later. They are responsible for our foreign policy. This was joined by later buildings housing the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. George Washington University is located in Foggy Bottom and is a federally chartered university that was named Columbian College originally. It opened in 1821. This was the first university founded under Washington, D.C.'s jurisdiction. The idea of the college came from President George Washington and he willed some of his shares in the Potomac Company to establish the school, although those shares lost value before they could be used for that. Later presidents and leaders would take up the mantle and get the school opened. It was renamed for President Washington in 1904. There are rumors that Mitchell Hall, which had once been a hotel, is haunted. We didn't really find any stories connected to that though.

The Old Naval Observatory was here from 1844 to 1893. While everything about the observatory has moved, the building itself is still there and is a National Historic Landmark. In 1877, the moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) were discovered from the observatory. There were a couple of bridges in Foggy Bottom that have legends connected to them. There was a bridge that linked the neighborhoods of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom to each other over Rock Creek. This bridge, known as M Street Bridge, was built in 1788 and on a stormy night, it collapsed. Unfortunately, there was a stagecoach on it at the time and so the coach, driver and horses all went into the water and drowned. That bridge was rebuilt. Now it is said that on dark and stormy nights, people see a ghostly stagecoach with a ghostly driver and horses driving frantically across it as "he had been wont to do in the days of the flesh." A drummer boy is said to have drowned near this bridge as well and his apparition is sometimes seen and sometimes a faint drum beat is heard. The Whitehurst Freeway was once the K Street Bridge over Rock Creek. A story started in 1908 that a headless male ghost would hang out on the K Street Bridge. Nobody knows how he lost his head and were not sure if people driving on the freeway ever see him.

There had been graveyards here in Foggy Bottom at one time, but none of them exist here anymore. A place that was once called Camp Hill because soldiers were stationed there during the War of 1812 had what the paper described as a 'tolerably large graveyard." That seems to have disappeared by 1866, but nobody knows if the bodies were removed. Another graveyard was where GWU's Medical School is now on 24th Street between H and I Streets. Christian Hines wrote of the site in 1866 that it was originally "on a considerable hill and on opening 24th Street, each side of the street was dug down to a foot below the graves, leaving on both sides open graves and coffins projecting into the street. I have myself seen pieces of skulls lying in the streets, some of which were the skulls of colored people." There were a couple of other smaller graveyards where bodies found floating in the river were buried. These graveyards may have attracted Sam McKeever who lived in Foggy Bottom. A legend told about him claims that he was a grave robber. During the day, he was a rag merchant, but he found more lucrative work at night body snatching and selling the bodies to medical schools. One story even claims that he jumped a woman in a Foggy Bottom park in 1918 and knocked her on the head, killing her. He carried the body to the medical school and collected his money. It had been dark and he didn't bother to look at his victim. He probably should have because when he arrived home, he found his wife missing and she never came home. He eventually realized what he had done. Some people claim his spirit roams Foggy Bottom. Perhaps looking for his wife?

Foggy Bottom has a four block Historic District of row houses that date back to the 1870s. These housed the working class Irish, German and African Americans from 1870 to 1915. These laborers came after the Civil War because the industry was growing so quickly here. The need for skilled and unskilled workers was great. And the plus about the row houses is that they were very affordable because Foggy Bottom wasn't a really desirable place to live because of the soot, smog and odors. The district is bounded by 24th and 26th Streets, New Hampshire Avenue and K and H Streets and covers three acres. 135 of the buildings are historic and many of the row houses measure only 12 feet wide. Their style is late Victorian and they stand two or three stories tall and are made from brick. Street level of many of the houses hosted businesses like bakeries, saloons and grocery stores. Gentrification eventually changed the cultural and racial make-up of the row houses. Snow's Court was affected heavily by this. C.A. Snow had been the publisher of the National Intelligencer and he built four frame dwellings that was nicknamed an "alley dwelling." As many as five black people would share a space that measured less than 700 square feet. The alley was considered overcrowded and unsafe. Hughs Court is known as Hughs Mews, but had the same reputation as Snows Court and is where Sam McKeever was said to live. Today, those same houses have obviously been renovated, but they now sell for half a million dollars. We couldn't find any stories of haunted row houses, but we did find a couple of haunted mansion in Foggy Bottom.

House on 25th Street 

All we know about the location of this house was that it was on 25th Street near Wisconsin Avenue on the border of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom. Paranormal Investigator Hans Holzer wrote the book "The Ghosts That Walk in Washington" in 1971 after he investigated several locations in the capitol city and one of the locations was this house. Holzer usually took psychic medium Ethel Meyers with him, but in DC it seems he worked with a variety of what he called "reputable" mediums. One of them joined him in the house for a seance and reported that it was haunted by "a very old black man who kept telling the assembled witnesses that he hated them for some reason" and that there was a woman named "Elizabeth Hanford, who claimed that her father had been in Lincoln’s Cabinet, and that she had died by hanging when she was only twenty-four." 

The Octagon House

We've talked about a haunted Octagon House on HGB before. That house had that name because it was built as an octagon with eight sides. That is not the case with this octagon house. It has eight angles, rather than eight sides. There is a distinctive circular center room at its front as well, that takes away from the octagonal shape. The house is located at 1799 New York Avenue NW and was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, who was the wealthiest planter in the country at the time. He inherited his father's plantation, Mount Airy, which was part of a group of interdependent plantations that covered 60,000 acres around 100 miles from DC. Tayloe not only was a plantar, but he bred horses and raced them and also built ships. Later, he owned several iron foundries.

Tayloe built the Octagon House in DC after a very important person suggested that he do so. His sister, Sarah Tayloe, married President George Washington's half-nephew and the President suggested Tayloe build in DC. The plan was for the house to be a winter home, but after 1818, they lived in it full-time until 1855. While the house is the only thing still around on the property, there originally was an ice house, smokehouse, laundry, stables and carriage house and, of course, slave quarters. As hard as it is to believe now, where the Octagon House was built was out in the wilds. The architect of the house was the man who designed the United States Capitol, William Thornton. He got some help from James Hoban, who designed the White House. The reason that the house ended up with its unique angles was due to the plot's location along New York Avenue, which was diagonal. The house wouldn't have looked right if it was placed facing either of the streets that it was along, so Thornton related the house equally to both streets, which put the two walls at a 70 degree angle from each other. When completed, the house had six sides and was built from red brick and trimmed with Aquia Creek sandstone. The interior featured mahogany doors, gold leaf embellishments, brass fixtures and closets, which were nearly unheard of at the time. An interesting feature were these two secret doors leading into the back hall and dining-room, both of which had no key holes, hinges or openings showing on the blind side. And the staircase is really interesting two. They have been described as "serpentine" with the way they curve up three stories. 

John Tayloe had married Ann Ogle in 1792 and the couple had 15 children with three of them being born at the house. When the War of 1812 started, Tayloe joined the Virginia militia and because of his experience with horses, he was put in charge of the DC cavalry. Tayloe's wife had offered their house to host the French consul and so a French flag was flying outside of the house when British forces marched into the city in August 1814. This saved the house from being burned since it was technically a "diplomatic residence." 

During the War of 1812, James Madison was President and he and first lady, Dolley, had to flee the city and when they did, the First Lady had her pet parrot taken to Octagon House for safe keeping. The White House was burned, so the Madisons needed somewhere to stay. The Tayloes invited the Madisons to live at the Octagon House and so the President rented the house for $500 for a six month stay. Dolley threw parties every Wednesday night and these were apparently called "Squeezes." That nickname came from the fact that the parties were so crowded, people were squeezed together. Dolley liked to invite people from all political persuasions to talk and build relationships and she made sure to greet everybody personally. And then she went to the kitchen and whipped up some Dolley Madison snacks like Zingers - ok, we made that part up. On February 17, 1815, President Madison ratified the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, in the upstairs study at the Octagon. 

In 1828, John Tayloe III died at the Octagon House at the age of 57. His wife stayed on there until she died in 1855. The Tayloe children rented out the house after that. A girls' school rented it first and then in the 1870s, the Federal government used it as office space for the Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navy. By the 1880s, it had become a multi-family apartment building housing factory workers. In 1898, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) started renting the house for their new national headquarters and they eventually bought it in 1902, holding onto it until the 1960s. The American Architectural Foundation took over the building and restored it to its 1818 appearance and opened the house as a museum in 1970, which it remains today. It is said that this is the most haunted house in Washington, D.C. Curators, staff and visitors have all reported paranormal activity. People hear rustling silk on the stairs and pounding on the walls. Floating spectral lights have been seen. The hanging lamp in the main hallway swings by itself. Footprints have been seen in dust on the top floor landing.  

The house had call bells for the servants and slaves and these bells began ringing on there own as far back as the mid-1800s. It is believed that the spirits of dead slaves ring the bells to announce their presence. The bells are no longer in the house and so not heard in our modern era, but there are many stories from the past. In 1874, Mary Clemmer Ames wrote about it: "It is an authenticated fact, that every night at the same hour, all the bells would ring at once. One gentleman, dining with Colonel Tayloe, when this mysterious ringing began, being an unbeliever in mysteries, and a very powerful man, jumped up and caught the bell wires in his hand, but only to be lifted bodily from the floor, while he was unsuccessful in stopping the ringing. Some declare that it was discovered, after a time, that rats were the ghosts who rung the bells; others, that the cause was never discovered, and that finally the family, to secure peace, were compelled to take the bells down and hang them in different fashion. Among other remedies, had been previously tried that of exorcism, but the prayers of the priest who had been summoned availed nought."

Virginia Tayloe Lewis was a granddaughter of John Tayloe III and she wrote a memoir on the family that was never published. She had grown up in the house and experienced the weirdness with the bells. She wrote, "The bells rang for a long time after my Grandfather Tayloe's death, and every one said that the house was haunted; the wires were cut and still they rang… Our dining room servant would come upstairs to ask if anyone rang the bell, and no one had." The wife of American consul to China, Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, Jr., was named Marian and she shared the following about the bells, "I have been told by the daughters of General George D. Ramsay, Chief of Ordnance for the United States Army and commander of the Washington Arsenal in Washington, D.C., that upon one occasion their father was requested by Colonel John Tayloe...to remain at the Octagon overnight, when we was obliged to be absent, as a protection to his daughters… While the members of the family were at the evening meal, the bells in the house began to ring violently. General Ramsay immediately arose from the table to investigate, but failed to unravel the mystery. The butler, in a state of great alarm, rushed into the dining-room and declared that it was the work of an unseen hand. As they continued to ring, General Ramsay held the rope which controlled the bells, but, it is said, they were not silenced."

Dolley Madison hadn't lived in the house for long and certainly didn't die in it, but her spirit is thought to return to the house on occasion. She apparently likes to host ghostly receptions and her full-bodied apparition has been seen in the drawing room and in the front hall. Her spirit leaves behind the scent of lilacs. People know the spirit is the First Lady because the apparition is seen with a turban. Dolley liked to wear them because they made her look taller. In the 1960s, the museum superintendent was Alric H. Clay and he claimed that something unseen was opening the house's doors late at night and would turn the lights on.

 Two tragedies occurred in the house with two of the Tayloes' daughters according to legend, but we found nothing to support the stories. They both died in accidents by falling down the stairs while in the process of arguing with their father about the men they wanted to marry. One daughter had fallen in love with a British soldier before the War of 1812 and died before that war as well. The other daughter died in 1817 after she eloped with a young man her father didn't approve of and when she came home to reconcile, they fought. The stories got started in 1908 in an article that ran in the Minneapolis Tribune. No names were included in the story and three of the daughters did die before they reached their 30s, but none were recorded to have died in the house. And one of them had been an infant and another died after her father had died. Nonetheless, the ghost lore says that one is often seen crumpled at the bottom of the staircase. Sometimes the light of a candle is seen going up and down the stairs by itself. The other daughter haunts the third floor landing and the stairs between the second and third floors.

A doctor did experience a haunting on the stairs at the house in the late 1940s. At the time, a caretaker named James Cyprus was living in the house with his wife and she had become ill. He asked the doctor to make a house call. After the doctor had spent some time with Mrs. Cyprus, he discussed her care with James and then asked him a strange questioned. He asked if there was someone else staying at the house that was a re-enactor or something. James looked confused and said that only he and his wife were in the house. The doctor then told him that he ran into a man on the stairs who had been wearing a military uniform dated to the early 1800s. And there could be a female spirit connected to the stairs that belongs to slave that worked in the mansion. The story behind her claims that a British soldier threw her down the stairs during the War of 1812. People claim that screams that are heard in the house, belong to her. The soldier that is seen might be the one who killed her as some say he either flung himself down the stairs or that one of the Tayloe sons killed the soldier. 

Another bit of ghost lore claims that a gambler was living in the house in the 1880s, possibly with women, so some think the house had been turned into a gambling den and brothel. One day, he won a bunch of money off a local farmer and that farmer thought that the gambler had cheated. That evening, the gambler was alone sleeping a third story bedroom when the farmer broke into the house, crept up the stairs and shot him to death. A 1912 newspaper article reported that a man was staying on the third floor and claimed that was visited every night by the spirit of a man who was killed over a card game held in that same room.

The Van Ness Mansion

This mansion no longer stands, unfortunately. It had been at the corner of 17th and Constitution Ave and was built in 1816 in the Greek Revival style. The stable that went with the house is still on the property that now hosts the Pan American Union Building. The mansion was built for John Peter Van Ness who was a Congressman from New York from 1801 to1803. Van Ness had married the daughter of David Burnes who had gotten very wealthy selling 450 acres of his land to the Federal government. That would be the land under the White House and the area all around it. We believe we mentioned in our White House episode that Burnes sometimes appears at the White House. Anyway, his daughter Marcia married Van Ness and she founded the city's first orphanage. He became a major general in the DC militia and the Mayor of the City of Washington, while also dipping his foot into banking and real estate. He also built a horse track on his property. The couple had a daughter whom they named Ann and she would be their only child. Heartbreak came when she was giving birth to their first grandchild. Ann died in childbirth and the baby was born still born. That was in 1823. Marcia would die in 1832 when a cholera epidemic swept through DC. In his grief, Peter commissioned a grand neoclassical family mausoleum at Georgetown’s Oak Hill Cemetery and had all deceased family interred. He was completely devastated and all the life seemed to leave him. Peter wandered the mansion alone and withdrew completely from society. The mansion fell into disrepair. He eventually passed in 1846 and the house was demolished in 1908. The government gave the property to the Pan American Union and they built their headquarters there in 1910. It was fashioned in Beaux Arts style. 

When the mansion still stood, people claimed that it was haunted and many think this began when Van Ness withdrew into the house. People claimed to hear the dreadful screams of a woman, whom some think mught have been Ann in childbirth. People who visited the house before it was demolished claimed to hear disembodied footsteps and they would see the apparition of a woman in a period bonnet. Benjamin Henry Latrobe had designed the house and he also designed the stable that sits at the northwest corner of the property. It was refurbished and houses the OAS Art Museum of the America’s offices. The building also houses a terrifying haunting. Apparently when Peter died, a grand memorial was thrown for him and a carriage drawn by his finest six white horses took his body to the cemetery to join his family in their mausoleum. For some reason, the ghosts of those six horses are seen galloping around the property and they are headless. We have no idea why they have no heads. These spirits are often seen on March 7, the date of Peter’s death. After they run around for a while - maybe looking for their heads - they return to the stable just passing through the wall. 

Foggy Bottom has an interesting history and has played a significant role in the beginnings of the American adventure. Is it possible that these various locations in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom are haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 162 - The White House

 
Moment in Oddity - The Doppelganger of Emilie Sagee
Suggested by: Michael Rogers

Many of you paranormal aficionados know what a doppelganger is, but for those of you who do not, it is either someone who looks like somebody else or the ghost of a living person. Seeing a doppelganger generally is bad luck. Emilie Sagee was a teacher in the 19th century in the country of Latvia. Julie von Güldenstubbe was a student of Emilie Sagée and she told an unbelievable tale to American writer Robert Dale Owen who wrote it down. One day in class, all of Emilie's 13 students saw a woman who looked exactly like her standing at the blackboard mimicking the moves of Emilie. The teacher was completely unaware of her doppelganger being there. Later, when Emilie was in the garden working, her students saw her doppelganger sitting at the desk. Some have reasoned that Emilie was able to project herself in some way, possibly just by her will. For example, as she worked in the garden, she thought to herself that she really should be in the classroom to keep the kids from mischief. Is this why her doppelganger appeared in the classroom while she was in the garden? The dobbelganger appeared several times and Emilie claimed that she never saw it, but she did say that she felt drained when it was nearby. If this doppelganger story is true, than it certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Assassination Attempt on Hitler at Burgerbraukeller

On this day, November 8th, in 1939, Georg Elser attempts to assassinate Adolph Hitler at the Burgerbraukeller. Sixteen years before, Hitler had launched the Beer Hall Putsch from Burgerbraukeller, which was one of the largest beer halls and located in Munich, Germany. This was a failed coup and resulted in the arrest of Hitler for treason. But it started the Nazi movement that would eventually come to power and install Hitler as Chancellor in 1933. Because of this, Hitler would return to this location every year to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch. Georg Elser knew this and planted a time bomb inside a pillar of the beer hall. The bomb did go off and killed eight people and injured 57. But Hitler had cut his speech short and he had already left by the time the bomb exploded. Elser was arrested and executed for the assassination attempt.

The White House (Suggested by Bob Sherfield and April Rogers-Krick, Research Assistance April Rogers-Krick)

For over two hundred years, a building called simply "The White House" has housed the most important leader in the United States of America, the President.The structure that sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue today is not the original. And even after being rebuilt, it has been transformed throughout the decades both outside and inside. Despite the changes, the White House has always been a symbol of the great republic that America is and how seamlessly leadership is transferred from one presidency to the next. Running alongside the regular history of this building is a supernatural one. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the White House.

After the Revolutionary War, in 1790, Congress established a federal district to be the center of the government and called it Washington, D.C. They chose a spot along the Potomac River that was between the northern and southern states. George Washington was president and he asked French Architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant to survey the area and design a complete city. L'Enfant was presented with a blank canvas and he relished the opportunity. He arrived in Georgetown in March of 1791 and designed an ambitious city. Thomas Jefferson did not like the plan and preferred a design he came up with that was more simple. Washington liked L'Enfant's design that was a mall that would be open to all the people. And the White House would be more than just the President's house, it would be the people's house.

L'Enfant envisioned a palace for the President. President Washington hand picked the site for the White House. As the construction of Washington, D.C. began, L'Enfant got into numerous conflicts with builders and refused to allow any compromises. Before long, he was fired for insubordination. Someone else needed to be hired as architect for the White House. A competition was held in 1792 and several architects submitted designs. A design submitted by Irish-born architect James Hoban was chosen. Hoban was born in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1758 and immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina in 1785. He moved to the nation's capitol after winning the competition and spent the rest of his life there, even serving as a member of the City Council from 1802-1831. The house was built from Aquia Creek sandstone painted white.

After eight years of construction, President John Adams and his wife Abigail, finally moved into the unfinished house in 1800.  Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801 and moved into the house. He had architect Benjamin Latrobe add colonnades on each wing that helped conceal the stables and storage located there. During the war of 1812, the British invaded Washington, D.C. On August 24, 1814, they broke into the White House, ate the meal prepared for the President and set fire to the White House. Most of the building was a total loss as were many of the buildings in the city. President Madison urged Congress to rebuild the buildings right there and not move the government to another city.

James Hoban was appointed to rebuild the house. Hoban had the walls dismantled down to the basement level., except for the middle section and he held onto the carved ornamentation even though they had scorch marks. While it took ten years to build the original house, the rebuild took only three years. President James Monroe moved into the building in 1817.  Benjamin Latrobe drew up proposals for a north and south portico to be added to the house. During Monroe’s administration, in 1824, the South Portico was constructed. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson oversaw the construction on the North Portico. They were both constructed from Seneca sandstone that was quarried in Maryland.

Once these porticos were finished, the White House we see today was completed. In 1829, Andrew Jackson furnished the East Room for the first time. Offices were moved as the 19th century brought in presidential families with children and more living space was needed. The ground floor was a utilitarian basement area that housed the servants living quarters, storage rooms, kitchens, a furnace and workspaces. President James K. Polk ordered that a statue of Jefferson by French sculptor Pierre Jean David d Angers be set up on the front lawn of the White House in 1848. The statue stood in the center of the lawn, which was cut and rolled and seasonally decorated with flower beds. This garden was the people's garden and open to the public every day. This statue of Jefferson was moved to the Capitol building in 1873.

President James Buchanan was elected in 1857. He was unmarried and his niece served as First Lady and she urged him to add a wooden greenhouse on the roof of the west terrace that was adjacent to the State Dining Room. It was a garden wonderland that guests could visit until it burned in 1867 and was replaced by an iron and wood structure twice as large as the earlier one. President Chester Arthur transformed the interior of the White House drastically when his presidency began in 1881. Twenty-four wagon loads of furniture were transported away from the house. Interior Decorator Louis Tiffany added his touches, which featured artistic painting and many surfaces were transformed with his decorative patterns and then there was his trademark colored glass. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt was elected President. The White House had been referred to by various names ranging from the "Executive Mansion" to the "President's House"to the "President's Palace." Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name.

President Roosevelt also began a major renovation to the White House in 1902. He wanted the offices moved from the second floor to the new Executive Office Building, which is now known as the West Wing. This building would take the place of greenhouses that grew roses, orchids and bedding plants. The New York architectural firm McKim, Mead and White oversaw the renovation. President William Howard Taft, had the Oval Office constructed within as an enlarged office wing and every president since has decorated the office according to his own tastes. President Woodrow Wilson's wife turned the attic into a space for herself and in the 1920s, President Coolidge's wife had a sunroom built that eventually became the current solarium.

The original architect Hoban did not make the best decision when he kept the damaged walls in the rebuilding after the War of 1812 and much of the White House needed to be demolished and rebuilt starting in 1948. That reconstruction would finish in 1952 and was supervised by architect Lorenzo Winslow. The Truman family moved back in after the construction in 1952. The White House consists of 6 levels which include 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms. There are 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators. 

*Fun Firsts: There have been a few historical first that have taken place in the White House.  President James Polk (1845-49) was the first President to have his photograph taken.  President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) was the first President to ride in an automobile and also the first President to travel outside the country when he visited Panama.  President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45) was the first president to ride in an airplane.* 

Every President since John Adams has occupied the White House, and the history of the building extends far beyond the construction of its walls.  From the Ground Floor Corridor rooms, transformed from their early use as service areas, the State Floor rooms, where countless leaders and dignitaries have been entertained, the White House is both the home of the President of the United States, his family and a museum of American History.  The White House is a place where history continues to unfold.  Some of that history continues to haunt the grounds today.

When President John Adams and his wife Abigail moved in to the White House in 1800, construction was not complete and the home was not yet fully furnished. Abigail must have loved the house or left quite an imprint on it because her apparition has been seen many times. Looking for a place to hang and dry laundry, Abigail had chosen the East Room for this task. Over the years, many people have claimed to see Abigail Adams with her arms outstretched as though she is carrying the laundry, entering the East Room. President Howard Taft claimed to have seen the ghost of Abigail Adams floating through doors on several occasions.  

Dolly Madison, the wife of President James Madison, was known for her lavish social gatherings and parties. She planted the lovely Rose Garden we still enjoy today. When President Woodrow Wilson was in office, his wife Ellen decided to have the rose bushes moved. The gardeners were busy digging and preparing the roses to be moved when all of a sudden they saw the apparition of First Lady Dolly Madison coming towards them yelling and waving her arms frantically. Her message was clear. She was not happy about her roses being moved. They refused to continue the work and the Rose Garden stayed where it was planted. Others have seen her strolling in the garden as she must have many times while she was still alive.

The War of 1812 left a mark on the White House that was more than just the one left by fire. Since 1814, the ghostly figure of a British Redcoat has been seen trying to set the house on fire as a type of residual haunting. One account is from the 1940’s and was told by a diplomat and his wife who were spending the night in the White House. They were asked if they slept well and the diplomat replied that they had not. He said that his wife kept waking up during the night claiming that a British soldier was trying to burn the bed.

The Lincoln family has added two apparitions to the White House. Mary Todd Lincoln claimed to see the apparition of her young son Willie. He had died in the White House in 1862. From 1862 to 1863, she would hold séances in the Red Room trying to reach her son.  Spiritualism was highly popular during the Civil War and Mrs. Lincoln became quite the aficionado. She also claimed to hear President Andrew Jackson stomping and cursing around the hallways. During the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant claimed to see the apparition of young Willie Lincoln on several occasions. The daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed to have seen the ghost of Willie in her room and that was the room where he died.

President Abraham Lincoln is the most seen ghost in the White House. In the 1940s, Queen Whilimenia of the Netherlands was visiting FDR and she was staying in the Queen’s Room.  Looking rather tired at a cocktail party, she related the story of the night before.  She heard a knock at her room's door and when she answered it, there stood the full-bodied apparition of Lincoln. She fainted to the floor and there she spent most of the night passed out. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also claimed to have seen the ghost of Lincoln. White House employees and First Lady Grace Coolidge also claimed to the see the ghost of Lincoln in the Yellow Oval Room, which Lincoln used as his personal library. He is seen in there standing and looking out the windows.
 
One of the most famous sightings was reported by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He was staying at the White House in the 1940s and he had just finished with a bath and was walking into the Lincoln Bedroom naked. He found Lincoln leaning against the fireplace mantle. Churchill remarked, "Good evening Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage." Lincoln smiled and then disappeared. President Harry Truman also claimed to have encountered the ghost of Lincoln.  He heard a knock on his bedroom door and when he answered it, no one was there. He stepped out of the room into a cold spot and as he walked down the hall he heard footsteps and shuffling down the corridor.

The list of those who have claimed to see Lincoln also include First Ladies, Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson, Presidents Hoover, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower, and Presidential children Susan Ford and Maureen Reagan and her husband had seen the ghost several times at the White House, usually as a red or orange aura. An unnamed prominent actor claimed to have awakened because of a voice pleading aloud. He rolled over to see Lincoln lying prostrate on the carpet, with his arms outstretched and his fingers digging into the carpet. Tony Savoy, White House Operations Foreman, has had the last reported sighting of Lincoln and that was in the 1980s. He saw Lincoln sitting in a chair at the top of the stairs.

It has been said that President William Harrison, who was the first president to die in office just one month into his first term in office, has been seen haunting the attic. They say he is looking for something but no one knows what. The ghost of President Andrew Jackson has been spotted in the Rose Bedroom.  He is always either laughing or swearing and a cold spot can be felt on the canopy bed. It's not all presidents and their families seen in the afterlife here. David Burns, the man who sold the land that the White House was built upon, has been heard in the attic and several other rooms. Lillian Rogers Parks, was a White House seamstress that worked there for 30 years. In her 1961 memoir, she told the story of a valet to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who claimed to have heard a disembodied voice in the Yellow Oval Room, saying “I’m Mr. Burns.” A guard serving during Harry S. Truman’s administration, claimed to hear a similar voice say the same thing, but he thought it was Secretary of State James Byrnes. When he went looking for him, he learned that the secretary hadn’t been at the White House that day.

The following is a retelling of a story told by President Reagan: "According to the President, Rex, the King Charles Cavalier spaniel who had recently replaced Lucky as First Dog, had twice barked frantically in the Lincoln Bedroom and then backed out and refused to set foot over the threshold. On another evening, while the Reagans were watching TV in their room, Rex stood up on his hind legs, pointed his nose at the ceiling and began barking at something invisible overhead. To their amazement, the dog walked around the room, barking at the ceiling. ‘I started thinking about it,’ the President continued, ‘And I began to wonder if the dog was responding to an electric signal too high-pitched for human ears, perhaps beamed toward the White House by a foreign embassy. I asked my staff to look into it.’ The President laughed and said, ‘I might as well tell you the rest. A member of our family [he meant his daughter Maureen] and her husband always stay in the Lincoln Bedroom when they visit the White House. Some time ago the husband woke up and saw a transparent figure standing at the bedroom window looking out. Then it turned and disappeared. His wife teased him mercilessly about it for a month. Then, when they were here recently, she woke up one morning and saw the same figure standing at the window looking out. She could see the trees right through it. Again it turned and disappeared.’"

And then there are stories of the demon cat that many have claimed to see in the basement. It only shows itself when a significant national disaster is about to happen. It was last seen sometime before 9/11. Let's hope nobody ever sees it again. The Rose Room and Lincoln Bedroom are claimed to be the most haunted rooms in the house. So is the White House haunted by all of these ghosts? That is for you to decide!