The White House has a haunted past

The White House might be home to the seat of executive power in the U.S., but if some who have walked its halls are to be believed, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. also plays host to spirits that long ago graced the mansion.

Ghost stories and spiritual abnormalities have surrounded the White House nearly as long as it has existed, according to the White House Historical Association.

The majority of White House ghost stories developed during the nineteenth century, according to the WHHA, as spiritualism was a prevalent belief in the country in the wake of the Civil War.

“Spiritualism offered a coping mechanism that was necessary during a time when life was shrouded in death,” Alexandria Kommel wrote for the Association.

The presidential mansion is arguably the most well-known haunted house in the country, and as the demolition of the East Wing continues to make way for President Donald Trump’s ballroom, there is a risk that spirits might become unsettled.

Here are some of the spirits said to haunt the halls of the White House.

Abraham Lincoln’s ghost

Abraham Lincoln’s ghost is one of the most-sighted spirits at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., with various dignitaries having said they have seen the spirit since his assassination in April 1865.

The most famous sighting reportedly occurred when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was visited in 1940. After emerging from a bath, Churchill, naked and smoking a cigar, walked into the Lincoln Bedroom and saw the spirit of Abraham Lincoln by the fireplace. “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” Churchill allegedly said, according to the National Constitution Center.

Two years later, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands heard a knock on the door of the Lincoln bedroom and fainted when she saw the 16th president’s ghost when she opened the door, according to History.com.

First ladies Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson have each reportedly seen or felt Lincoln’s presence in the bedroom, according to History.com.

Lincoln’s son

William “Willie” Lincoln, the third child of the Lincolns, died of typhoid fever in the White House at 11 in 1862. The president and the first lady were distraught over their son’s sickness and death. The National Republican, a newspaper of the time, said the illness “caused anxiety and alarm to his family and friends for a week past … The President has been by his side much of the time, scarcely taking rest for 10 days past.”

Shortly after Willie’s death, Mary Todd was introduced to the Lauries, a well-known group of mediums, according to the WHHA. The president and the first lady were so distraught over their son’s death that Mary turned to holding séances in the Red Room at the White House to communicate with their son.

According to the WHHA, there is evidence Mary Todd hosted as many as eight séances in the White House and that her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, attended a few of them.

Mary Todd told her half-sister that Willie would appear at the foot of her bed “with the same sweet, adorable smile that he always has had,” according to “Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography.” She added he was occasionally accompanied by Eddie Lincoln, her son who died at 4.

In the 1870s, a staff member of the Grant administration reported having a conversation with Willie Lincoln, while several staff members said they saw Willie’s spirit throughout the White House.

Abigail Adams’ ghost

On several occasions, White House residents and staff members have either seen the ghost of Abigail Adams, America’s second first lady, doing her laundry or reported the smell of lavender and damp clothing in the East Room.

Her ghost has reportedly been seen heading toward the East Room, arms outstretched as if carrying laundry, according to History.com. In the days of the Adams Presidency, the East Room of the then-new White House was the warmest and driest, and Abigail used it to hang the wash.

While living at the White House, Lou Hoover, the wife of the 31st president, Herbert Hoover, saw the ghost of Abigail Adams entering the doors of the East Room.

Andrew Jackson’s ghost

Another president’s spirit has allegedly been felt in the White House; however, instead of being seen, Andrew Jackson has been heard.

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln told friends in the early 1860s that she had heard Jackson stomping and swearing through the halls of the presidential residence, according to History.com. The White House Historical Association says Jackson, supposedly lying in his bed in the Rose Room, lets out a guttural laugh that has been heard in the White House since the 1860s.

Washington D.C. landowner

The man who once owned the land on which Washington, D.C., was built mainly is said to haunt the house that stands next to the land that was once his.

David Burns, better known by the name George Washington gave him — “the obstinate Mr. Burns” — was the most difficult landowner in what would become the capital, but he sold his 600-acre parcel by parcel, according to Washington, D.C., public broadcaster WETA. His land holdings included a tobacco farm, orchards, a swampy area adjoining a creek, and his humble family home. Lafayette Park in the District was once Burn’s peach orchard, according to WETA.

His final sale to private investors came in 1798, and Burns died in 1799 – the same year as Washington. The family home stood until the late 1890s because, according to legend cited by WETA, Burn’s daughter refused to demolish the little white house in which she had grown up.

A valet to President Franklin D. Roosevelt was reported to have heard a voice coming from a distance in the Yellow Oval Room, saying, “I’m Mr. Burns,” White House seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks wrote in her memoirs, “My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House.”

A guard heard the voice during the Eisenhower administration and went looking for him, thinking it was then-Secretary of State James Byrnes, according to History.com. The secretary was not in the White House that day.