Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Treasurey Annex

A ghostly woman haunts the Treasury Annex. She is seen wearing a long white dress. She has been seen walking on the second floor of the Treasury Annex. Workers in the building have heard her footsteps. Ghostly voices have been heard, and the ghost occasionally flushes the toilet. This happens after normal work hours when the building is supposed to be empty.

The ghostly visitor has startled workers working late at night. They have seen the ghostly woman float in front of them in their offices. One woman went to report the sighting to her supervisor. She was leaving her office as the woman approached: She had sensed that someone had looked in the door; she heard the ruffling sound of a dress, and she was trying to follow the sound. She had apparently sensed the apparition.

http://ghosttalks.paranormall.org/_content/haunt/1595

Washington National Cathedral

Located at Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenue, NW, The Washington National Cathedral is a magnificent and stunning structure. The foundation stone was laid in 1907 but the work was not completed until September 29, 1990, 83 years later. A lot can happen in that time.

A 20th-century Greek-born artist sculptor, Constantine Seferlis, spent 20 years carving the stone of the National Cathedral. The Cathedral has more than 200 stained-glass windows, including a "Space Window," an abstract tribute to the Apollo 11 mission which actually contains a small moon rock.

The Washington National Cathedral also features Darth Vader. The National Geographic World Magazine held a contest where children were asked to help complete the Cathedral. They were asked to draw designs and submit them for the Contest. The third-place winner was named Christopher Rader and he drew the fearful villain, Darth Vader. His drawing was selected. Jay Hall Carpenter and Patrick J. Plunkett sculpted the fierce looking head. The sculpture was placed high up on the northwest tower of the Cathedral.

To view Darth Vader, you need to leave the building through the ramp entranceway. Go through the double wooden door of Lincoln Bay. Go down the ramp, and step into the parking lot. Then turn and look up at the tower closet to you. Darth Vader sits up high so bring binoculars. Darth Vader is almost at the top of the tower. Located between the two huge louvered arches and at the bottom of the slop of the gable is a cared grotesque Darth Vader. He located on the right and side.

There is also a carved skull closer to the ground and people sometime mistake it for Darth Vader.

Woodrow Wilson is the only president buried in Washington, DC and he is buried at the National Cathedral.

The cathedral offers tours. FMI http://cathedral.org/

Some people believe that the Cathedral is haunted. Some people believe the artist who sculpted the building is still there watching over his work.

Tudor Place

In Georgetown, "Tudor Place" is another Peter family house. With money bequeathed by George Washington to his step-granddaughter, Martha Peter, the Peter family purchased an entire eight-acre city block in 1805.

The house was designed by Dr. William Thornton, the first architect of the Capitol. Many items owned by George and Martha Washington (his chest and camp stool, her tea table), Francis Scott Key's personal desk, and other items reside now in Tudor Place.

A Trust established by the last Mr. Peter (who died in 1983) manages the house and its surrounding five acres of beautiful gardens. All rooms remain complete with their original furniture, carpets, pictures and other items. Also present are the bed where Robert R. Lee spent his night in Washington (on his return to settle affairs after the Civil War), and the portrait presented to the family by General Lafayette when he visited America in 1824, many years after the revolution.

It was said in decades past, while the house was still inhabited, that unusual sounds would sometimes awaken family members and visitors. There are also unconfirmed reports of partial apparitions. Possible reasons for the reported hauntings remain unknown as of 2006.

Tudor Place, open to the public every day except Monday, is located at 31st Street and Q Street in Georgetown.

Over two centuries ago, the Peter family of crop farmers also built a house near Riley's Lock on the C&O Canal (#24) in the Seneca region of Maryland. Family members are buried there with clearly marked graves. The Peter boys and their cousins had fought in the Civil War, sometimes on different sides, as was common in Maryland, a pivotal border state throughout the conflict.

Three Sisters

There are three large rocks known as the three sisters on the Potomac River near Georgetown. The rocks are part of a submerged reef that sits in the water. The rocks got their insidious name over a hundred years ago, when a boat carrying three sisters who had set out was wrecked against the rocks. The three sisters drowned.

People who live near the shore where the accident happened have reportedly heard the moans of the ghostly women. This is an area that many accidents happen, much more so than at any other spot on the river. Numerous boats have wrecked and many swimmers have drowned. Moaning is often reported above the sound of wind and rushing water.

Some of the few survivors report that the last thing seen is the dark form of the "sisters rocks."

Back in 1889 the sound of the moaning awoke some people living near the rocks. The sound started at midnight, and the people woke up and prayed for the inevitable next victims. Just twelve-hours later a boat came down the Potomac river with a young man pulling the oars. Unpexected current pulled it off course and, in the tumult, bashed it against one fht rocks, shattering the wooden boat and pummeling the man, who ultimately drowned. (Reportedly, his body was not reclaimed from the river for over one week.)

People not experienced with the particularly insidious nature of the Potomac River's strong, capricious flows and often wildly erratic currents with large stone outcroppings often simply do not understand how treacherous it really is. It is a dangerous and merciless killer.

Ft. McNair

Brief: Center of Military History

Ghosts/Haunt: Opening window; Moving objects

Abstract: The building is located next to where Lincoln's assassination conspirators were hung and is very haunted. They kept John Wilkes Booth's body in the basement. People have trouble with the window in this room. The window opens all by itself; even when objects are placed in front of the window it will swing open all by itself. The building has been converted to apartments for mid-level Army officers and their families. The children report seeing a ghost of woman and child.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Marine Barracks - Archibald Henderson

Brigadier General Archibald Henderson was the longest serving Commandant of the Marine Corps. The fifth person to hold this office, he served from 1820 until his death in 1859, so long that tradition holds (incorrectly) that he willed this house to his heirs. He was buried in nearby Congressional Cemetery.

During World War II, on October 12, 1942, Commandant of the Marine Corps Major General Thomas Holcomb hosted a party here to wish good luck to several marines shipping out, among them his son, Lieutenant Franklin Holcomb. At the party, the Commandant was asked what he thought about women serving in the Corps. Before he could reply, the portrait of Gen. Henderson dropped from the wall to the buffet.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Maples

The House we see here is known locally as "Friendship House", after the charity that operated it from 1936 until quite recently. It was originally built as the residence for wealthy merchant William Mayne Duncanson in 1795. George Washington referred to as a "fine house in the woods" when he visited, and it's gone through numerous changes in the two hundred years since then.

Used as hospital for British troops in War of 1812.

Briefly owned by Francis Scott Key.

The brick portion you see was built by Sen. John M. Clayton (Whig from DE) after his purchase in 1856. He added on a ballroom decorated by his neighbor, Constantino Brumidi, the painter of the Capitol interiors.

After the Civil War, the house was purchased by a pioneering woman journalist by the name of Emily Edson Briggs in 1871. She journeyed to Washington, DC when her husband's acquaintance, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Her fierce defense of the efficiency of the many young ladies who were engaged for the first time in office work led to her career in the press. In addition to being the first women to deliver spot reports via telegraph, she became well known for her weekly columns under the pseudonym "Olivia".

Five months later after moving in, her husband passed away. At about that time, she realized that the master bedroom was also the "abode of a most gentle and benign female ghost". The ghost would wander the house and ground weeping softly. Periodically, the sounds of an unfamiliar instrument would fill the house as well.

Olivia being a formidable, tough female journalist in an era when that was an odity, was not fazed by a mere ghost. She lived quite happily with the ghost for several years until one morning she felt drawn to a spare bedroom. There she was amazed to discover that the pillow had an indentation as if it had been slept in. In the indentation was a single, white pearl. Ever since, the ghost has not been felt at the Maples.

Olivia lived here for several more decades, acquiring a reputation as a leading figure in the city's literary and social figures.

Backstory: In the 1840s, Major A.A. Nicholson and his wife moved into the Maples. Mrs. Nicholson later committed suicide, much to the shock of the Capitol Hill society, because of suspicions that her husband was having an affair with Daniel Carroll's daughter Sallie. Her suspicions were proven right when Nicholson later married Sallie Carroll.

Latrobe

The house at 423 Sixth St is known locally as the Carbery House, after Navy Yard architect James Carbery, who purchased in in 1833. Built originally in 1803 by Christ Church architect Robert Alexander, it had been rented to Architect of the Capitol Benjamin Latrobe.

While Latrobe was living here, he supervised the construction of the new U.S. Capitol building. Originally designed by Dr. William Thornton, Latrobe was called in to provide more professional supervision. In September of 1908, he got into an argument with the Clerk of the Works (construction superintendent) John Lenthall about the relative stability of the vaulted ceiling of the Old Supreme Court chamber. Latrobe, being a professionally trained architect in a time when that was quite rare, felt that it was premature to remove the struts. Lenthall disagreed, and so sure of his position was he, that he knocked the supports out while underneath them.

Inevitably perhaps, he was crushed to death by the falling debris, and in his dying breath he muttered a curse upon the building, which remains to this day.

Navy Yard

John Quincy Adams

Old Naval Hospital

No hauntings as of yet.

Some interesting cases:

Private John James, a 51 year old Marine Private, was admitted on July 10th, 1868 after swallowing two ounces of xxxx with the "intent at self destruction". He died three days later, after spending much of the three days vomiting and hiccuping any attempts at an antidote.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/oldnavy.html