Haunted Hay-Adams Hotel Washington D.C

The Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington D.C.is consistently rated as one of the best hotels in the world by travel writers. The prestigious hotel enjoys an excellent location with a view of the White House and close proximity to many attractions in Washington D.C. A woman who used to live in the location that the hotel is situated on is reportedly haunting the fourth floor of the hotel

Ghost Stories

The Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington D.C. has a lingering guest in Clover Adams. Clover was the nickname of Marian Hooper Adams, who was married to Henry Adams.

Henry Adams was completing the building of his side by side mansion on Lafayette Square. The Adams property was adjacent to the property owned by John Hay's.

Clover Adams was artistic and a gifted photographer. She took her life in 1885, by ingesting a chemical she used for developing photographs. There was some whisper of murder, but no one knows for sure what all the facts of the death are. Her death remains a mystery. Clover suffered bouts of depression and had recently lost her beloved father, Dr. Hooper.

After Clover died, her husband, Henry, destroyed all of her papers, photographs, letters and diaries. Henry Adams was rumored to have had a long-time mistress. Adams did not mention Clover in his autobiography, "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams did commission a monument called "Grief", with a cloaked androgynous bronze figure on it. Clover and Henry Adams are both buried under the monument. The gravesites of Henry and Clover Adams are not marked with names, just the monument.

The hotel staff reports that Clover stays on the fourth floor of the Hay-Adam Hotel.. People who have experienced encounters with Clover agree that she is most active in the first two weeks of December, which is the anniversary of her suicide. Clover died on the fourth floor of the house that was still under construction at the time.

Staff experiences have included mysterious opening and closing of locked doors, clock radios turning on and off, the sounds of a woman crying softly and the voice of a woman who asked a housekeeper, "what do you want?" A number of housekeepers have had encounters with the spirit, including some supernatural hugs.

History of the Hay-Adams Hotel

The Hay-Adams Hotel takes its name from the prominent former owners of the the two mansions that originally occupied the location. John Hay was the private assistant to Abraham Lincoln and later held the office of Secretary of State. Henry Adams was an acclaimed author and a descendant of U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Henry and Marian (Clover) Adams, John and Clara Hay and bachelor geologist Clarence Keng became close friends. The group called themselves "The Five of Hearts" and even had china and letterhead for the group. This group of five banded together forming a clique in their Washington high society circle.

John Hay and Henry Adams purchased adjoining lots in 1884. Henry Hobson, who was an acclaimed architect, designed elaborate Romanesque homes. The homes became a salon for high society. The salon saw many discussions of politics, science, literature and art by leading artists, writers and politicians. Personalities that gathered at the salon including Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry James and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

John Hay died in 1905. Clara Hay died in 1914. The ownership of their mansion passed to their daughter, Alice Wadsworth, who was married to Senator James Wadsworth. Henry Adams died in 1918, The Wadsworths purchased the Adams house, which they leased to the Brazilian Embassy.

Harry Wardman, who was a premier Washington developer, purchased both homes in 1927. He razed the mansions and constructed a 138 room Italian
Renaissance-style apartment hotel, which was designed by architect Mirhan Mesrobial. The new building featured dazzling architectural elements, including Corinthian orders, walnut wainscoting and intricate ceiling treatments with Elizabethan, Tudor and Italian motifs. Wood panels from the Hay residence were used in a new public space now known as the John Hay room.

When the Hay-Adams House opened in 1928, prominent Washingtonians and the elite travelers of society flocked to the new hotel. Celebrity guests included Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Ethel Barrymore and Sinclair Lewis. Guests enjoyed the fantastic views of the White House, Lafayette Square and St. John's Church.

The Hay-Adams closed its doors for a major renovation in 2001. The hotel was restored and reopened in 2002.

The Hay-Adams Hotel enjoys an unobstucted view of the White House and is just minutes from the Capitol Building, Washington Monument, Smithsonian and The Mall.The Hay-Adam Hotel is listed as a National Historic Hotel of America.