The Haunted Hay-Adams, Washington D.C.: Clover Adams and the Fourth Floor

The Hay-Adams looks straight across Lafayette Square at the White House from the corner of 16th and H Streets. It stands where two of Washington’s most famous houses once stood: the joined homes built in 1885 for John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary and later Secretary of State, and his close friend the historian Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams. Developer Harry Wardman bought them in 1927, pulled them down and opened an Italian Renaissance residential hotel in 1928. It is now one of the most exclusive hotels in the capital.

The ghost story belongs to the Adams side of that history. Marian “Clover” Hooper Adams, Henry’s wife, died by suicide in December 1885, and staff and guests have long reported a woman sobbing, a voice in empty rooms and doors that open by themselves, mostly on the fourth floor and mostly in early December. For the rest of the city’s haunted stays, see our guide to haunted hotels in Washington, D.C.

The ghosts of The Hay-Adams

Clover Adams

Marian Hooper Adams, known to everyone as Clover, was a witty Boston-born hostess and a gifted photographer who developed her own pictures. In December 1885, not long after the death of her beloved father, she swallowed potassium cyanide from her darkroom and died.

Henry Adams destroyed many of her papers, rarely spoke of her again and commissioned the hooded bronze memorial over their grave in Rock Creek, often called Grief. Rumors that she was murdered have circulated for more than a century, but they are only rumors; the accepted record is suicide.

Sobbing and a voice in empty rooms

Staff have described a woman crying softly in guest rooms and stairwells when nobody is there, and guests alone in their rooms have heard a female voice ask, “What do you want?” Locked doors are said to open on their own, and clock radios switch on and off.

An unseen hug

The most personal reports come from housekeepers working on the fourth floor, who say they have been hugged by an invisible presence and, in some versions, heard their own name spoken. People who tell these stories describe Clover as sad, never threatening.

A scent in the air

Some accounts mention a faint smell of almonds, which people connect with the cyanide that killed her; others describe the scent of mimosa. Reports are said to cluster in the first two weeks of December, around the anniversary of her death.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Fourth-floor rooms: Where the crying, the voice and the housekeeper hugs are reported.
• The stairwells: Another place where staff have heard a woman sobbing.
• White House view rooms: Top-floor rooms looking across Lafayette Square, near the spot where the Adams house stood.

History of The Hay-Adams

In the 1880s Lafayette Square was the most fashionable address in Washington. John Hay and Henry Adams, close friends at the center of a famous circle of writers and politicians, built a pair of joined houses on the corner of 16th and H Streets in 1885. Clover died in December 1885, and Henry lived on there for decades.

In 1927 Harry Wardman, the developer behind much of 1920s Washington, bought both houses, demolished them and built a residential hotel designed by Mihran Mesrobian. It opened in 1928 with 138 rooms and drew guests such as Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Ethel Barrymore. In 1932 new owner Julius Manger remodeled the rooms and added central air conditioning.

The hotel has been closely tied to the White House ever since, a place for diplomats, advisers and incoming administrations. The B. F. Saul Company bought it in 2006, and it remains independently managed.

Today it has about 145 rooms and 20 suites, the Lafayette dining room and the Off the Record bar in the basement, long known as the place to be seen but not heard in political Washington.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Plan a stay for the first two weeks of December, when Clover is said to be most active, and ask for the fourth floor.
• Book a White House view room; the hotel’s location is the reason to stay as much as the ghost.
• Have a drink in Off the Record, the basement bar, before heading up for the night.
• Visit the Adams memorial known as Grief in Rock Creek, where Clover and Henry are buried together.
• The Mayflower and the Omni Shoreham, the city’s other famous haunted hotels, are a short ride up Connecticut Avenue.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Mayflower Hotel: Coolidge’s missed inaugural ball
• Omni Shoreham Hotel: the Ghost Suite in Woodley Park
• Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore: Molly and the 19th floor, an hour up the road
• Haunted places in Washington, D.C.: the White House, Octagon House and more
• Haunted hotels in Washington, D.C.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Wikipedia: Hay-Adams Hotel
• Washingtonian: Where to stay for a haunted Halloween (2022)
• Wikipedia: Reportedly haunted locations in Washington, D.C.

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