page_title: The Octagon House
section_title: Alleged haunting
hierarchical_section_title: The Octagon House / Alleged haunting
caption_attribution_description: Octagon House, Washington, DC
context_page_description: The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. After the British destroyed the White House during the War of 1812, the house served as the temporary residence of James Madison, President of the United States, for a period of six months. It is one of only four houses to serve as the Presidential residence in the history of the United States of America and one of only two that still stand today.
  Colonel John Tayloe III, for whom the house was built, was born at Mount Airy – which he later inherited – the colonial estate built by his father, John Tayloe II on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Tappahannock, Virginia. By this time it was the centerpiece of a roughly 60,000 acre department of interdependent plantation farms-known as the Mount Airy department, located approximately one hundred miles south of Washington, D.C., in Richmond County, Virginia. He was educated in at Eton College and Cambridge University in England, served in the Virginia state legislature, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1800.
context_section_description: The Octagon House is purported to be one of the most haunted homes in D.C. 
   Apparitions and the presence of otherworldly forces have reportedly been seen and felt in many places at The Octagon, including on the spiral staircase, the second floor landing, the third floor landing, the third floor bedroom, and the garden area in the rear. Among the eyewitnesses have been members of the public, curators, and other employees hired by the museum .
  There are many variations of ghost stories that feature the Octagon House in Washington, D.C. As one of the oldest buildings in the city, it lends itself nicely as a setting for historical, spooky, and macabre tales. The stories recorded here are merely a presentation of a few of the reported experiences and legends that have evolved over the past 200 years, and should not be taken as historical fact.
caption: Angled service stairway
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