In June 1945, just two months into his first term, Truman wrote to his wife Bess of the spooky quality of his new residence: “I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches–all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study. Jackson’s ghostly presence also showed up in the White House correspondence of Harry Truman, America’s 33rd president. READ MORE: Why Andrew Jackson’s Legacy Is So Controversial The Rose Room, Jackson’s bedchamber while he was president, is believed by some to be one of the most haunted rooms in the White House. In the early 1860s, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln–who believed strongly in the occult, and reportedly held séances in the White House to commune with the spirits of her dead sons–told friends she had heard Jackson stomping and swearing through the halls of the presidential residence. Elected president four years later, the surly Jackson continued to hold grudges against those who had supported his opponent. In 1824, Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson was defeated by John Quincy Adams in one of the most contentious presidential elections in history. Truman’s administration, a guard heard a similar voice thinking it was then-Secretary of State James Byrnes, he went looking for him, only to learn that the secretary hadn’t been at the White House that day. Roosevelt who reportedly heard a disembodied voice coming from a distance in the Yellow Oval Room, saying “I’m Mr. Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress who chronicled her 30-year career working at the White House in a 1961 memoir, told the story of a valet to President Franklin D. Her ghost, clad in a cap and lace shawl, has reportedly been seen heading towards the East Room, arms outstretched as if carrying laundry.ĭid you know? Lincoln, who is believed to have attended only two of the séances his wife held in the White House, actually foresaw his own death more than once, including in a dream he had shortly before he was killed.Ī lesser-known early White House personality who has been said to haunt its halls was David Burns, who sold the government most of the land on which the city of Washington-including the presidential residence-was built.

Because the East Room of the new White House was the warmest and driest, Abigail used it to hang the wash. was still just a town, built mostly on swampy land on the banks of the Potomac River. Abigail Adams and her husband John, the second president of the United States (1797-1801), moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from the former U.S.

Winston churchill by martin gilbert