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The White House Ghosts

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

It is said that Lincoln's ghost haunts the White House. He appears in the room where the Lincoln bed is kept. Harry Truman once responded to a 3 o'clock knock on his door and found no one there. He attributed the knock to Lincoln.

Lincoln is said to return to the White House when the security of the country is at risk. He strides up and down the second floor hallway, raps at doors, and stands by certain windows with his hands clasped behind his back. One staff member claimed to have seen Lincoln sitting on his bed pulling on his boots.

A bodyguard to President Harrison was kept awake many nights trying to protect the president from mysterious footsteps he heard in the hall. He grew so tired and worried; he finally attended a séance to beg President Lincoln to stop so he could get enough sleep to properly protect the president!

Abigail Adam's ghost was seen drifting through the closed doors of the East Room to hang the laundry during the Taft administration.

A gardener claims to have spoken to the ghost of Dolly Madison, who reproved him for trying to remove the rose bushes she had planted over a hundred years ago.

In the 1930's Andrew Jackson's ghost could be heard laughing in the Rose room.

In 1952, extensive repairs were done to the second floor of the White House. Since then, the ghosts have not walked so actively.

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© S.E. Schlosser 1997 - 2008.

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