From ex-presidents to long-departed maids, the White House is rife with ghostly tales. It is a huge, imposing building of white-painted sandstone, designed in a serene, noble Georgian style by James Hoban. Completed in 1800, partly by slaves and immigrants, it was first occupied by John Adams and, though it was severely damaged by fire in 1812, it was rebuilt again two years later and has continued to house presidents of the United States ever since.

Some of the White House's ghosts seem to have been seen independently and repeatedly by several people: Abraham Lincoln's ghost is famous worldwide for its apparently random appearances to various visitors and members of the household, who have seen it variously gazing from a window, sleeping on the bed and pulling on its boots in Lincoln's old bedroom! Abigail, wife of John Adams, is said to haunt the East Room, where she hung her laundry in the chilly, incomplete White House and James Madison's wife Dorothea appeared to the gardeners who tried to dig up her rose bed, with the result that it was left intact. Andrew Jackson is also still said to linger, as is David Burns, the previous owner of the land on which the White House was built.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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