Walk Washington's most haunted locations. 23 stops, self-guided. 3 stops free. No guide, no schedule — just you and the dark.
On December 6, 1885, Marian "Clover" Adams swallowed potassium cyanide in the house that now sits beneath the Hay-Adams Hotel. Her husband Henry destroyed her photographs; guests on the fourth floor still smell almonds — the scent of cyanide. Washington's haunted landmarks read like a presidential roll call. Lincoln's ghost appeared to Winston Churchill at the White House in 1940; Churchill walked out of his bath to find the president standing by the fireplace. At Ford's Theatre, actors hear a gunshot from the presidential box on loop since April 14, 1865. Stephen Decatur died in agony at Decatur House after an 1820 duel, and his ghost still presses a hand to his stomach at the second-floor window. This self-guided tour covers 13 free stops across the capital — from the Octagon House to Congressional Cemetery.
The Hay-Adams Hotel stands on the site where Henry Adams and John Hay — best friends, neighbors, and two of the most brilliant men in Gilded Age Washi...
The Treasury Building is the third-oldest federally occupied building in Washington, with construction beginning in 1836. Andrew Jackson allegedly cho...
The Octagon House — which actually has six sides — was built in 1801 for Colonel John Tayloe III, one of Virginia's wealthiest planters. After the Bri...
You enter Ford's Theatre, where the laughter of a comedy died on April 14, 1865. John Wilkes Booth fired a single shot into Abraham Lincoln's head fro...
Abraham Lincoln held séances in the White House while grieving the death of his eleven-year-old son Willie in 1862. Mary Todd Lincoln invited mediums ...
On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth crept into the presidential box at Ford's Theatre and fired a single .44 caliber derringer ball in...
You stand before 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where the most powerful people in the world sleep — and where some of them refuse to leave. Abraham Lincoln...
They carried the dying president across Tenth Street through a light rain and laid him diagonally on a bed too small for his six-foot-four frame in a ...
You climb the Capitol steps, entering the marble halls where democracy breathes and something else lingers. John Quincy Adams collapsed at his desk in...
You stand before Decatur House, built in 1818 by America's youngest naval hero. Stephen Decatur lived here only 14 months before Commodore James Barro...
Commodore Stephen Decatur was one of the most celebrated naval heroes in American history when he moved into his grand Federal-style home on Lafayette...
You walk through Lafayette Square, the seven-acre park across from the White House that history remembers as Tragedy Square. Philip Barton Key II — so...
You enter the Old Stone House, built in 1765, the oldest unchanged structure in Washington. The blue limestone walls have seen Georgetown grow from a ...
St. John's Episcopal Church has stood on the north side of Lafayette Square since 1816, and every sitting president since James Madison has attended a...
Dolley Madison spent her final years in this house on Lafayette Square, holding court as Washington's most beloved hostess until her death in 1849 at ...
You stand at the top of the Exorcist Steps — 75 stone stairs dropping steeply from Prospect Street to M Street in Georgetown. In 1973, this became the...
You walk through Congressional Cemetery, established in 1807, where senators, representatives, and Civil War veterans rest under weathered headstones ...
James Smithson never set foot in America. The illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, this British chemist left his entire fortune to the Unit...
Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy, built Halcyon House in 1787 on the Georgetown bluffs overlooking the Potomac. The elegant Georgian...
You stand before Halcyon House, built in 1787 by the first Secretary of the Navy. But the house became truly strange when Albert Clemons, an eccentric...
Built in 1765 by cabinetmaker Christopher Layman, the Old Stone House is the oldest unchanged building in Washington. It served as a home, a shop, a b...
You stand before St. John's Church, known as the Church of the Presidents, built in 1816 across from Lafayette Square. Every president since Madison h...
The Washington ghost tour includes 23 documented haunted locations covering 208 years of documented history.
The first 3 stops are completely free — no account required. To unlock all 23 stops, a History Nearby premium subscription is $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
No. This is a self-guided walking tour. Each stop includes the address, a map pin, and the full haunting story. Walk at your own pace, start anytime, and take any route you like.
Plan for approximately 4.5 hours. This accounts for walking between stops and reading each haunting story. You can also split it across multiple evenings.
The most visited stop on our Washington tour is Hay-Adams Hotel at Hay-Adams Hotel, 800, 16th Street Northwest.
3 stops free in Washington. No guide, no schedule — walk at your own pace after dark.
Last updated February 22, 2026. Researched by the History Nearby editorial team.