The White House is an interesting building. Not just because it houses the most powerful man on planet earth, the American President, but more because of the chilling accounts of hauntings in the building, reported by Presidents themselves, their families and their staff. And why wouldn't there be ghosts there? It seems only natural that in such an emotionally charged building there would be some who lived there who were so closely tied to the structure, even after their death they continue to remain bound to the building. Especially if their death were untimely... The white House dates back to 1800, and it has housed many United States Presidents who have met untimely deaths. But of all the United States Presidents killed by speeding bullet, by far the most interesting were Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Both were very popular, charismatic leaders, in charge at a time the United States faced many internal problems. It should surprise no one that the White House most famous ghost stories centre around one of them, President Abraham Lincoln. Understandably he would have excellent reasons to still hang around; he had heaps of unfinished business of great importance. But before I tell you about the sightings of Lincoln's ghost at the White House, I am sure you'd be interested to know a little something about Lincoln himself that I found extremely interesting. Lincoln showed an unusual interest in the Spirit World.
Lincoln's family held seances in the White House during his administration. These seances could well have started when Lincoln's little boy Willie died, just after another son's premature death. They say it was the last straw for Mrs. Lincoln. She became temporarily insane. And it may well to be soothe her feelings that Lincoln allowed seances to be held in the White House. No one really knows what happened during the seances, mainly because Lincoln's surviving son, Robert, burnt the evidence after his father's death. But I am sure it would not have been much different from our home grown ceremonies with our local bomoh. But you have to got to wonder how successful Lincoln's bomohs were. Because Lincoln's younger son, Willie, still haunts the White House. One report in the reputable newspaper, The New York Times, detailed how little Willie just suddenly 'materialised' before the eyes of President Grant's family, years after Willie had died. But that was not all. Lincoln himself was said to be psychic. It has been widely reported that he once saw a double image of himself in the mirror. One was real and life like, the other was etheric, pale and shadowy. Lincoln was convinced the double image was a warning. He was sure it meant he would serve out his first term safely, but he would die before the end of his second term. He was proved correct. But his psychic ability did not end there. Perhaps the eeriest of all his psychic experiences was a premonition he had of his own death while he was asleep. He confided hid dream to his close friend and social secretary, Ward Hill Lamon, who related it in a biography he wrote on Lincoln. He wrote of the dream as it was told by Lincoln himself:
'About 10 days ago I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important news from the south. I could not have been long in bed when I fell asleep, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with the sickening surprise. Before me was a coffin in which rested a corpse, wrapped in funeral garments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin!' 'Then there came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more that night...'
had fate tried to prevent the tragedy by warning him in this way? Lincoln is also said to have had a recurring dream in which he saw himself on a strange ship, moving speedily towards an indefinite shore. Infact, he always had the dream before some big event. He also dreamt it on the eve of his death. That morning when he awoke, he spoke of the dream he had had yet again. He interpreted the dream to mean some important news was on its way. It never occurred to him the important news was his own death. The strange ship carrying him to a faraway shore was Charon's boat ferrying him across the river Styx for his burial. But the million dollar question remain, did he really cross over to the Nether World? Soon after his death, rumours circulated thick and fast of a ghostly President still wandering the White House. But as one would expect, the rumours were promptly denied by the United States government. People of high political standing do not talk easily about such things as ghosts. But in the case of the White House, so authentic are the hauntings, even former Presidents, their wives and other world figures who have visited there, have freely admitted to seeing or sensing Lincoln's ghost. The bedroom that Lincoln slept in is said to be one of the most impressive in the White House, so naturally, the staff at the White House tend to put important visitors in this room. One such visitor was the late Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Of course when she first arrived, she knew nothing about the hauntings in the White House. But in the middle of the night she was awoken from a deep sleep by the persistent, loud knocking on the door. At first she lay in her bed, thinking she was imagining it. But the knocking continued.
When she called out to see who it was, the knocking stopped but she got no response. Soon after, it started up again. Confused and dazed from sleep, she stumbled to the door and opened it. What she saw made her head spin. The unmistakable tall and lean, bearded figure of Abraham Lincoln stood at the door, looking straight at her. She remembered nothing more because she fainted from the shock it caused her. By the time she regained consciousness, the figure had vanished. All she woke up to was the quiet hum of electrical equipment operating in the pin drop silence of the huge, old building. But that was not the only famous sighting of Lincoln's ghost in the White House. President Roosevelt's wife gave another creepy account of Lincoln's ghost in the White House in her autobiography: 'I was sitting in my study when one of my maids Mary Evans, burst in on me in a state of great excitement. I looked up from my work and asked her what was the trouble. 'He's up there sitting on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes!' she exclaimed. 'Who's up there taking off his shoes?' I asked. 'Mister Lincoln!' the maid replied. Other maids said they saw him lying quietly in bed. And others vowed he periodically stood at the window of the spooky East Room. This room is famous for sightings of ghostly apparitions and it really comes as no surprise. Both President Lincoln and President Kennedy's bodies were placed in the East Room after their assassinations.
President Harry Truman noted in his diary in 1945 that he was once disturbed by a knocking on his bedroom door. On opening the door and finding no one there he concluded, 'I think it must have been Lincoln's ghost in the hall.' But the knocking continued to disturb Truman and the rest of his family. It always happened at night and it was always persistent. At first Truman brushed it off as the noises of an old building settling. But when the persistent knocking started to keep them up at odd hours of the night, he decided to take action. He called in an architect, General Edgerton, to investigate the sounds. The survey Edgerton carried out led to the rebuilding of the structure of the White House. According to the architect, if they had not rebuilt the structure, the building would surely have collapsed around them. had Lincoln tried to warn the occupants the White House was about to fall down around their ears? Another room in the White House said to be totally spooked in the bedroom where Lincoln's autopsy was performed. By a twist of fate, it was also the room where his son Willie died. This room has had its fair share of eerie disturbance that cannot be explained away. For instance, during President Johnson's administration his daughter, Lynda Bird, was the unfortunate person fated to sleep in this room. She did not find it a pleasant experience at all. The President's daughter often complained of strange, shuffling footsteps in the night when she turned off the lights. But worse yet, the phone in her room would ring but no one would be on the other side.
When she checked with the White House operator, the operator would swear black and blue she had not put any call through to that room. And on further investigation this was confirmed to be true. Many White House observers are convinced Lincoln's restless soul still stalks the White House because of unfinished business. And when you come to think about it, what he started out to do many moons ago is still not finished. And the present administration is by no means anywhere near fixing the problems that divide black and white Americans. For the reason alone, it's very likely the disturbances at the White House have never stopped. But Lincoln and his son are not the only ghosts haunting the White House. Household members of the late President Taft have observed a chilling sight, the ghost of Abigail Adams, the wife of the second President of the United States way back in 1801. She walked right through the closed doors of the East Room with her arms outstretched. God knows what other apparitions reside between those ancient, troubled walls.
had fate tried to prevent the tragedy by warning him in this way? Lincoln is also said to have had a recurring dream in which he saw himself on a strange ship, moving speedily towards an indefinite shore. Infact, he always had the dream before some big event. He also dreamt it on the eve of his death. That morning when he awoke, he spoke of the dream he had had yet again. He interpreted the dream to mean some important news was on its way. It never occurred to him the important news was his own death. The strange ship carrying him to a faraway shore was Charon's boat ferrying him across the river Styx for his burial. But the million dollar question remain, did he really cross over to the Nether World? Soon after his death, rumours circulated thick and fast of a ghostly President still wandering the White House. But as one would expect, the rumours were promptly denied by the United States government. People of high political standing do not talk easily about such things as ghosts. But in the case of the White House, so authentic are the hauntings, even former Presidents, their wives and other world figures who have visited there, have freely admitted to seeing or sensing Lincoln's ghost. The bedroom that Lincoln slept in is said to be one of the most impressive in the White House, so naturally, the staff at the White House tend to put important visitors in this room. One such visitor was the late Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Of course when she first arrived, she knew nothing about the hauntings in the White House. But in the middle of the night she was awoken from a deep sleep by the persistent, loud knocking on the door. At first she lay in her bed, thinking she was imagining it. But the knocking continued.
When she called out to see who it was, the knocking stopped but she got no response. Soon after, it started up again. Confused and dazed from sleep, she stumbled to the door and opened it. What she saw made her head spin. The unmistakable tall and lean, bearded figure of Abraham Lincoln stood at the door, looking straight at her. She remembered nothing more because she fainted from the shock it caused her. By the time she regained consciousness, the figure had vanished. All she woke up to was the quiet hum of electrical equipment operating in the pin drop silence of the huge, old building. But that was not the only famous sighting of Lincoln's ghost in the White House. President Roosevelt's wife gave another creepy account of Lincoln's ghost in the White House in her autobiography: 'I was sitting in my study when one of my maids Mary Evans, burst in on me in a state of great excitement. I looked up from my work and asked her what was the trouble. 'He's up there sitting on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes!' she exclaimed. 'Who's up there taking off his shoes?' I asked. 'Mister Lincoln!' the maid replied. Other maids said they saw him lying quietly in bed. And others vowed he periodically stood at the window of the spooky East Room. This room is famous for sightings of ghostly apparitions and it really comes as no surprise. Both President Lincoln and President Kennedy's bodies were placed in the East Room after their assassinations.
President Harry Truman noted in his diary in 1945 that he was once disturbed by a knocking on his bedroom door. On opening the door and finding no one there he concluded, 'I think it must have been Lincoln's ghost in the hall.' But the knocking continued to disturb Truman and the rest of his family. It always happened at night and it was always persistent. At first Truman brushed it off as the noises of an old building settling. But when the persistent knocking started to keep them up at odd hours of the night, he decided to take action. He called in an architect, General Edgerton, to investigate the sounds. The survey Edgerton carried out led to the rebuilding of the structure of the White House. According to the architect, if they had not rebuilt the structure, the building would surely have collapsed around them. had Lincoln tried to warn the occupants the White House was about to fall down around their ears? Another room in the White House said to be totally spooked in the bedroom where Lincoln's autopsy was performed. By a twist of fate, it was also the room where his son Willie died. This room has had its fair share of eerie disturbance that cannot be explained away. For instance, during President Johnson's administration his daughter, Lynda Bird, was the unfortunate person fated to sleep in this room. She did not find it a pleasant experience at all. The President's daughter often complained of strange, shuffling footsteps in the night when she turned off the lights. But worse yet, the phone in her room would ring but no one would be on the other side.
When she checked with the White House operator, the operator would swear black and blue she had not put any call through to that room. And on further investigation this was confirmed to be true. Many White House observers are convinced Lincoln's restless soul still stalks the White House because of unfinished business. And when you come to think about it, what he started out to do many moons ago is still not finished. And the present administration is by no means anywhere near fixing the problems that divide black and white Americans. For the reason alone, it's very likely the disturbances at the White House have never stopped. But Lincoln and his son are not the only ghosts haunting the White House. Household members of the late President Taft have observed a chilling sight, the ghost of Abigail Adams, the wife of the second President of the United States way back in 1801. She walked right through the closed doors of the East Room with her arms outstretched. God knows what other apparitions reside between those ancient, troubled walls.
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