Haunted places guide · Washington, D.C.

The White House Ghosts: Lincoln, Abigail Adams and Who Else Haunts 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

For more than a century, presidents, staff and royal guests have told stories of Abraham Lincoln walking the second floor. Here is where the White House ghost stories come from, which ones have a witness behind them, and how you can see the house for yourself.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate places

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1800First occupied

1792Cornerstone laid

Our nearest ghost hunt: Linville ManorMeet the ghosts

No house in America has more ghost stories attached to it than the White House. The White House Historical Association, the nonprofit that researches the building’s past, keeps its own list: Abraham Lincoln in the bedroom that now bears his name, Abigail Adams carrying laundry to the East Room, Andrew Jackson laughing in the Queens’ Bedroom, Thomas Jefferson playing the violin, and a British soldier from 1814 still carrying his torch.

Some of these stories come from people you would not expect to believe in ghosts, including first ladies and a queen. Many others can be traced to one source, a footman who liked to entertain reporters, and most have no named witness at all. This guide sorts them out, tells the real history behind each one, and explains how to visit, because the White House is still a working home and office, and you cannot simply walk in.

History of the White House

President Washington chose the Irish-born architect James Hoban’s design in July 1792, and the cornerstone was laid at noon on October 13, 1792. Enslaved African Americans quarried the stone, and Scottish masons raised the sandstone walls. John Adams became the first president to live in the house on November 1, 1800, and the next day wrote to Abigail that he hoped ‘none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.’

On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops set the house on fire. Only the outer walls survived, and much of them had to be rebuilt. The Madisons moved to the Octagon House nearby, and James Monroe moved into the restored White House in October 1817. William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in the house in 1841, and Lincoln’s 11-year-old son Willie died here in 1862, a loss that drove Mary Lincoln to hold seances in the Red Room.

By 1948 engineers warned the building was in danger of collapse. Harry Truman moved across the street to Blair House while contractors removed the entire interior, put in a steel frame and rebuilt the rooms, and the Trumans moved back on March 27, 1952. That matters for the ghost stories: the walls are old, but almost every floor, staircase and room behind them dates from the 1950s. In October 2025 the East Wing was demolished to make way for a larger new wing with a ballroom.

The rooms named in the stories are real. The Lincoln Bedroom was Lincoln’s office and Cabinet Room during the Civil War; the Yellow Oval Room on the second floor looks south toward the Potomac; the East Room is the great public room on the State Floor. All three are part of the working home and office of the president, which is why the people telling ghost stories have mostly been presidents, their families, guests and staff.

The ghosts of the White House

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln is the White House’s most famous ghost. Grace Coolidge is said to have seen him standing at a window of the Yellow Oval Room, looking out toward the Potomac, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands is said to have fainted after seeing him during a 1942 visit. Harry Truman told of knocks on his door at night, and Winston Churchill is supposed to have met Lincoln while stepping out of a bath; that story comes secondhand, from a later book on Civil War ghosts.

Historians at George Washington University and the White House Historical Association point out that the Lincoln stories may have started with Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Smith, a footman who, between about 1901 and 1904, told reporters he had seen the ghosts of Lincoln, Grant, McKinley and several first ladies. Smith was a known storyteller whom reporters relied on for slow news days. The last widely reported Lincoln sighting dates from the early 1980s.

Abigail Adams and the laundry in the East Room

When Abigail Adams moved in during November 1800, the house was unfinished and had no running water. She is said to have hung the family’s laundry to dry in the cold, empty East Room. The story goes that she still crosses the room toward it, arms out as if carrying a basket, and newspapers in 1913 described a woman gliding through the house before dawn. Staff have told of a smell of lavender and damp laundry, though no named witness has ever been given.

Willie Lincoln

Willie Lincoln died in the White House in 1862, aged 11. Staff during the Grant administration in the 1870s are said to have seen him, and the Wikipedia summary of DC hauntings records sightings as late as the 1960s. None of the witnesses is named. His death led Mary Lincoln to invite spiritualists to the Red Room and to the family’s summer cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in 1862 and 1863, a fashionable practice in grieving Civil War Washington.

Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and other presidents

Andrew Jackson’s guttural laugh is said to have been heard in the Queens’ Bedroom (once called the Rose Bedroom) since the 1860s, and Mary Lincoln is said to have heard him stomping and swearing. Thomas Jefferson, who loved the violin, is supposed to play in the Yellow Oval Room. William Henry Harrison is said to haunt the attic and John Tyler the Blue Room, and Frances Cleveland, who married Grover Cleveland in the Blue Room in 1886, is said to appear there too. None of these stories has a named witness.

Dolley Madison, David Burnes and the British soldier

Dolley Madison is said to guard the Rose Garden. David Burnes, the farmer who owned the land the White House stands on, is said to be heard in the Yellow Oval Room, and a British soldier from the 1814 burning is said to wander the grounds with a torch.

Anna Surratt and 'the Thing'

Anna Surratt, whose mother Mary was hanged on July 7, 1865, for her part in the Lincoln assassination, begged in vain to see President Andrew Johnson the day before. The story says she still bangs on the White House doors every July 6. And in 1911 Major Archibald Butt, President Taft’s military aide, wrote to his sister that the domestic staff were frightened by a ghost they called ‘the Thing’, a young man; Taft reportedly ordered them to stop spreading the stories.

Where to look

• The Lincoln Bedroom: Lincoln’s office and Cabinet Room during the Civil War, where guests have said they heard knocking and footsteps. Private residence; not on the public tour.
• The Yellow Oval Room: on the second floor, where Grace Coolidge is said to have seen Lincoln at the window, and Jefferson and David Burnes are said to linger. Private residence.
• The East Room: Abigail Adams’ laundry room in 1800 and the setting of her ghost story. Check whether it is on the current public tour route.
• The Queens' Bedroom: the old Rose Bedroom, where Andrew Jackson is said to laugh. Private residence.
• The north fence on Pennsylvania Avenue: the best free view of the house at night, and where evening ghost walks stop to tell the stories.

Visiting the White House

Public tours of the White House are free, but you must request them through your member of Congress (a representative or one of your senators), between 7 and 90 days before the date you want. Tours generally run from 7:30 to 11:30 AM Tuesday to Thursday and 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM on Friday and Saturday, except on federal holidays, and they can be cancelled at short notice.

The self-guided tour covers the public rooms of the State Floor; the White House currently lists the Blue Room, Red Room, Green Room, State Dining Room, Cross Hall and Entrance Hall. The rooms with the most famous ghost stories, the Lincoln Bedroom, the Yellow Oval Room and the Queens’ Bedroom, are on the private second floor and are not part of any public tour. Secret Service officers along the route are happy to answer questions about the rooms, if not about the ghosts.

There is no ghost hunting at the White House, and no tour inside goes there at night. For the stories after dark, join one of the Lafayette Square ghost walks, which stop at the north fence and continue to Decatur House, St. John’s Church and the Hay-Adams.

• Visiting Free public tours booked through a member of Congress; the north fence on Pennsylvania Avenue is the best outside view
• Tours Self-guided State Floor tours, Tuesday to Saturday mornings
• Hours and season Tours about 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM Tuesday to Thursday, to 1:30 PM Friday and Saturday
• Tickets Free; request 7 to 90 days ahead
• Ghost hunting Not possible: a working residence under Secret Service protection

Tips for your visit

• Request your tour as early as you can (up to 90 days ahead); spring and summer slots go fast.
• Check the White House visitor FAQ for ID rules and banned items before you go, and leave large bags at your hotel.
• Go back after dark: the north portico is floodlit, and Lafayette Square is the meeting point for most of the city’s ghost walks.
• Pair the visit with the Octagon House, where the Madisons lived after the 1814 fire, two blocks west.
• Stay with the stories at the Hay-Adams, across Lafayette Square.

More haunted places nearby

• The Octagon House: where the Madisons lived after the White House burned, and the city’s most haunted house museum
• The Hay-Adams: the haunted hotel across Lafayette Square
• Haunted hotels in Washington, D.C.: for a haunted place to stay
• Haunted places in Washington, D.C.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• White House Historical Association: White House ghost stories
• Wikipedia: White House
• Library of Congress, Headlines and Heroes: The haunted houses of Washington (2020)
• GW Today: The true(-ish) stories behind D.C.'s famous ghosts (2022)
• Wikipedia: Reportedly haunted locations in Washington, D.C.
• The White House: Visit
• Washingtonian: Haunted houses and ghost tours for Halloween (2015)