By Kathy Murray
Halcyon House is located in Georgetown, which is a section of Washington, DC.The house was built by Benjamin Stoddert, who was the first Secretary of the United States Navy. His bodymay have died in 1813, but his spirit lives on at Halcyon.
THE TUNNEL
Strange things started happening in the house after Stoddert’s death (his ghost was often seen sitting in a chair and staring out the window), and as the house continued to change owners, things only got worse. A tunnel was connectedto the basement,and wasused during the Civil War as part of the Underground Railroad, and while many slaves saw freedom by using it, some ended up dying on the property.Thetunnel was closedin the early 20th century, but screamsand moans can still be heard coming from thatarea of the basement. Once slaves started dying in thetunnel, the sightings of phantoms roaming the house started. Some had definite outlines, while others looked like floating blobs. Most of these sightings took place when it was after dark.
MYSTERIOUS OWNER
A man named Albert Adsit Clemons became the owner of the house in the 1930s and, like SarahWinchester of California’s Winchester Mystery House, decided that he had to continue building onto the house in order to save his life – and his soul. Stairsto nowhere, doors that opened up to walls and the addition of a crypt were just some of the changes he made to Halcyon House. As a way of keeping people from wanting to take the house from him,he also made sure there was no way to acquire electricity. However, the massive construction effort didn’t stave off death for long: He passed away in 1938 and as requested in his will, a doctor was brought in tostab his heart to make sure he wastruly dead.
SO MANY GHOSTS
The spirit of Albert Clemons was seen often after his death, but it’s hard to tell who exactly is responsible for the ghostly tricks that happen throughout the house. Could it be Clemons who opens windows to let in air? Or maybe it’s Benjamin Stoddert whosefootsteps can be heard pacing the attic? Maybe the slaves who died in the tunnel are also responsible for the pounding that comes from behindHalcyon’s many walls. It’s hard to begin to explain why sleeping visitors have awoken to discover that they are levitating above their beds, or how two people sleeping in the same bed can wake up to find that they have unknowingly switched sides. And whose spirit is it that doesn’t like a particular engraving that hangs on the walls? Thework of artoften has to beput back on the wall after it’sfound on the floor, andafter one resident put it back up, she came back tofind that not only was it on the floor again, butthat there was now a big black ‘X’ on the wall were it was supposed to be.
A PART OF HAUNTED HISTORY
The Halcyon House is now on the National Register of Historic Places, so the ghosts who haunt it probably won’t be going anywhere any time soon.