Col. Tayloe went with the wishes of George Washington.[6]. He commissioned William Thornton, who was also responsible for designing the U.S. Capitol building, to design the home for him. Solomon, Mary Jane; Ruben, Barbard; and Aloisi, Rebecca. Something must of changed for Ruth in 1872; perhaps she died, or was remarried or had to sell the property. from Georgetown, and about .5mi. Elizabeth Ford, in her 1957 article Lively Ghost, Secret Tunnel at Octagon exhibited a definitely skeptical attitude when she wrote that: an octaroon, contrary to her wishes, was buried alive inside the walls. NE of Hamburgh, which was absorbed into the new city plan. The Octagon was firmly established as a haunted house by 1888, when, it is reported, twelve men decided to spend a night in the house in order to expel the ghosts or prove the legends wrong. Something unseen gets some chuckles teasing pets within the 12 rooms in this house. New York: Albany, C. Van Benthuysen & sons. The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, built in 1799 and located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Enamored with the octagon house phenomenon, they set to work building. (Owner, manager, employee, etc. Owner Marlene Hanson has seen glowing eyes of spirits where the underground tunnel connects to the house. Since the home was the place where both John and Ann Tayloe breathed their last breaths, their spirits may roam around long after their deaths, ringing bells to summon servants who no longer attend to their desires. Octagon House, WI (Ruth Brown suffered not only the death of Edmund, but three of her children, and the eventual loss of her house. Aghast we stood. Unfortunately, not much money was spent in maintaining this structure, and it became a slum-quality rental. It wasnt until the 1890s when the American Institute of Architects would outright purchase the house in 1898. The Octagon House, WI (The spirit of Rose at first didnt like having to share the house with the new owner, plus not trusting this owner to make repairs. But the house is definitely a place worthy of its reputation, especially if you happen to be a fan of paranormal activities and ghost stories. But the house is also filled with secrets. Variations of the legend are so well developed and circulated, that visitors to the house are often thoroughly convinced that they are based on fact. This daughter, too, fell to her death down the stairs (or over the railing), and her shade is alleged to haunt the third floor landing and stairs between the second and third floors. The Octagon House, as it came to be known, was completed in 1801 in the very early days of the new federal city. A newspaper of the account included a reference to the legend of the bells. Unexplained Research LLC The haunted Octagon House waswritten about in Chad Lewis & Terry Fisks BOOK, THE WISCONSIN ROAD GUIDE TO HAUNTED LOCATIONS, who are paranormal investigators for Unexplained Research LLC. Instead he chose the primitive wilds of the new federal city and the architect Dr. William Thornton, the man who designed the new United States Capitol and the help of James Hoban winner of the White House design contest. Marlene decided to keep living in her current house, and turned the main Octagon House into a museum; offering tours of some of the rooms. She was murdered, through jealousy, by a young English naval officer whose ship was at anchor in Georgetown, not a suburb of Washington. The Octagon House is rumored to be home to several ghosts. Virginia Tayloe Lewis, a granddaughter of John Tayloe III, grew up in the house and recorded this family memory in an unpublished manuscript: "The bells rang for a long time after my Grandfather Tayloe's death, and every one said that the house was haunted; the wires were cut and still they rang Our dining room servant would come upstairs to ask if anyone rang the bell, and no one had. A first-hand account was printed in a local newspaper, and this was subsequently quoted or paraphrased in articles printed in 1892, 1934, 1941, 1950, and 1969. When it is dark, the living see lights, and hear sounds. Its rich history and important location mark it as a location with many layers to unfold, some no doubt including unhappy spirits that linger on. About this time the family left the home, and ever since it has virtually been unoccupied.". Today, fewer than 70 octagon homes still stand in America, and the McElroy Octagon House is among the ones that offer tours. A maintenance man in 1981 was on the second floor landing one night and heard a noise on the first floor. "Halloween is inching closer, and it wouldn't. When Cyprus told him that there wasnt, the doctor looked perplexed and told him of encountering a man on the stairs just a few moments before who had been dressed in a military uniform of the early 1800s. The real reason for the secret rooms and tunnels may never be known for sure. September 17, 1951 article showed the damage that the Octagon House. "[26], Museum superintendent Alric H. Clay claimed that in the 1960s spirits would often turn on the lights and open The Octagon's doors late at night. Of the Tayloes' seven daughters, only three died before the age of 30. The event is part of Travel Channel's third annual "Ghostober" programming event. as laid out in a plan of the District of Columbia by Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant and surveyed by Andrew Ellicott. Soon after the house was converted into a museum, the superintendent at the time was said to have witnessed various lights flickering on or off or having them turn off for no apparent reason with no one at the switch. Another elaborate Octagon ghost story, with no clear origin, involves a female quadroon slave, who is identified as an octoroon in some of the variants. January 16, 1984: Stairway in the Feusier Octagon House, located at 1067 Green Street, in San Francisco's Russian Hill. The parlor mantle is made of a fine cement composition painted white. Now they expected her to share her house? Ghost Dimension s01e07 ~ The Old Glen & Milner Curse (2016) 4 . The building served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers and a target for the Union Army during the Civil War. The Chronicle wrote upon its discovery that McElroys letter was penned with pride, self-confidence and a disarming disregard for spelling and syntax. In it, he explained how they came to San Francisco and built their dream home. Ruth and other full apparitions have been known to appear from time to time. run across the door, being ingeniously cut some distance from the actual door, no key holes, hinges or openings showing on the blind side. The Octagon House, located in Washington D.C, United States of America is, despite its name, shaped like a hexagon. Witnesses have seen the spirit of the young boy going about his business in different parts of the house. By the 1880s, the house was occupied by 10 families, probably one living in each room, tenement-apartment-style. This passageway led down to the basement tunnel, which led to the nearby river. There is no historical evidence to support these stories. Tayloe owned a quadroon slave, of whom he was very fond. The 1941 book Ghosts that Still Walk: Real Ghosts of America, by Marion Lowndes, describes ghostly receptions held by Dolley, states that Dolley has been sighted in the front hall, and says that the smell of lilacs is noticeable whenever Dolley is present. Source: [http://dcmemorialist.com/wp-content/gallery/octagon-house/2015-04-24-13.45.40.jpg]. Among other remedies, had been previously tried that of exorcism, but the prayers of the priest who had been summoned availed nought."[21]. The butler, in a state of great alarm, rushed into the dining-room and declared that it was the work of an unseen hand. Whaley House, CA (Spirits of Mr. and Mrs. Whaley are still comforting their distressed daughter; (suicide) and taking care of their toddler;(fever). Besides being the emergency escape route from a possible attack from hostile Native Americans, Isaac Brown joined Fond de lacs Underground Railroad by using this house as an Underground Railroad stop in this massive effort to move ex-slaves to Canada. Located at 2548 Gough Street, between Union and Green Streets in San Francisco's Cow Hollow. [3] The Octagon was originally constructed to be a winter residence for the Tayloe family, but they lived in the house year-round from 1818 to 1855. As word got around of his intent to build, William Augustine Washington III (who was married to Tayloes sister Sarah) persuaded John to construct the home on the outskirts of what was Washington D.C. at the time. By the 1950s, property records were long lost and it was a city mystery as to who built an eight-sided home, among the rarest in America and just one of two left in San Francisco. The owner, docents, and the public have all had personal experiences. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Edwin joined his friend Edward Bragg on the battlefield fighting for the Union. The oldest recording of the spirit of the First Lady is from 1912, when the Washington Herald reported that between midnight and dawnthere is a low hum of pleasant conversation, the sound of silver and the clink of glasses as a splendid company with gay liveried men drive up and take away the departing guests, in reference to the ghostly continuation of one of Dolleys famous parties. This condemned home became endangered when plans for a new school were presented, and the authorities were eyeing this property with plans to tear it down if no one would buy it, despite being listed on the NRHP. Built in 1847, Octagon Hall stands today as a monument to a by gone era. The building was condemned by the state. Some declare that it was discovered, after a time, that rats were the ghosts who rung the bells; others, that the cause was never discovered, and that finally the family, to secure peace, were compelled to take the bells down and hang them in different fashion. The lot was in open country west of the partly built President's House, about 1mi. The Breakers, RI (The Matriarch of the Family is enjoying her home in peace). The Octagon House was built in the 1860s by Paul J. Armour, a New York City financier. People in the museum have been touched by cold, little hands. You can book a tour on the. [7] During this time he established the Washington Jockey Club's on a mile track which extended from the rear of what is now the site of Decatur House at H Street and Jackson Place, crossing Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to Twentieth Street with Charles Carnan Ridgely, the current site of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. His letter, in some ways, feels remarkably current. In the late 1940s (the story first appears in 1949), a doctor who had made a house call to the Octagon had a strange encounter on the stairway. His early death in 1824 was possibly connected to wounds received during the war. located in San Francisco's Cow Hollow, sustained from the 1906 earthquake. Three dozen newspaper clippings, mostly about the outbreak of the Civil War, were tucked inside, as was a tintype of the McElroy family: husband William and wife Harriet (a very good Looking old Couple, William jokingly wrote) and daughter Emma. The interior is elaborately finished, the doors of the first story being of mahogany. Colonel Tayloe and his daughter quarrelled on the second floor landing over the girls relationship with a British officer stationed in the city. Marlene Hanson also held events, dinners and other planned programs here, putting this old house to work; bringing in needed funds to keep maintaining it and making improvements as well. 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