Hauntings in America: Ghosts of the White House

There's nothing better than a good haunted house story for Halloween and there may not be a house more haunted than our Nation's capital in Washington D.C. The White House has been haunted by both Presidents and their First Ladies. But you needn't be a politician or married to one to haunt the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In fact, you don't even have to be human.

Our first President George Washington had a black cat we now know as Demon Cat, or D.C. for short. Neither Washington nor any of his presidential pets lived in the White House (which was built several decades after Washington was president), the ghost of his cat is said to haunt the White House basement. According to Haunted-Places.com, some versions of D. C.'s haunting are placed in the basement of the U.S. Capitol Building. Wherever he appears, one thing is certain: no one wants to see him. Not only is he supposed to grow from a helpless little kitten to a life-size demon, but he brings with him a curse of national disaster. Before the stock market crashed in 1929 D.C. was spotted by a White House guard. The Demon Cat was also seen before JFK's assassination.

Another frequent haunter of the White House is the ghost of Anne Surratt, daughter of Mary Surratt, who was executed on July 7, 1865 for her part as a conspirator in the plot to kill Abe Lincoln. July 7^th is when Anne Surratt has been seen on the steps of the White House, pounding on the door, probably pleading for her mother's release on the anniversary of her death.

While the Demon Cat may foretell disaster and Anne Surratt relives her personal anguish over the destiny of her doomed mother, another ghost of the White House may be the former inhabitant of the land on which the White House now sits. David Burns volunteered his land to the U.S. government and 150 years later FDR's valet Cesar Carrera heard a voice e Yellow Oval Room next to the Lincoln bedroom. The voice seemed to be calling, "I'm Mr. Burns." Had the ghost of David Burns returned for his land?

Disgruntled as he may be David Burns doesn't hold a candle (or a torch, perhaps) to the ghost of the British soldier who's been seen, torch in hand, on the White House grounds late at night. In one of the bedrooms on the 2^nd floor, the British Soldier was seen trying to light the bed on fire. It's widely believed that this ghost is a former British soldier who was, in his living days, involved in setting fire to the White House in 1814.

The White House, as we've seen, is haunted not only by modern day politicians (which is scary enough!) but by an assortment of spirits of people and animals long since dead. Most are harmless, but all remind us of our ties to the past, and how we can never really escape history.