AIA's direct connection to one of Washington D.C.'s most haunted homes

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1698158505\/mmtp4ypegmctavotuohd.jpg","id":"6682476"}],"caption":"The entryway of the Octagon"}],["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1698158552\/qyegyzuealswusrwjjds.jpg","id":"6682478"}],"caption":"The stairwell at the Octagon"}]],"markups":[["a",["href","https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/ghost","target","_blank"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.ldoceonline.com\/Folklore-topic\/ghost_1","target","_blank"]],["strong"],["a",["href","https:\/\/architectsfoundation.org\/octagon-museum\/","target","_blank"]]],"sections":[[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"What exactly are ghosts? \u201c"],[0,[0],1,"A disembodied spirit imagined"],[0,[],0,",\u201d some say. \u201c"],[0,[1],1,"The spirit of a dead person that some people think they can feel or see in a place"],[0,[],0,",\u201d according to others. But how tangible are our experiences with them? What\u2019s it like to be in a space that they allegedly fill?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0," The Octagon is an architecturally impressive Washington D.C. landmark that houses the Architects Foundation. It\u2019s widely considered one of the most haunted places in our nation\u2019s capital with a fair share of ghost stories attached. But who could haunt it? And why? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cThis is considered the second most haunted house in Washington, right after the White House,\u201d said Amanda Ferrario, manager of the Octagon Museum. \u201cBut a lot of the stories that you will hear have been completely romanticized and fictionalized over the years.\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Let\u2019s separate the real from the imagined."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Built in 1799, the Octagon was the winter residence of plantation owner John Tayloe III and his wife Ann Ogle Tayloe. Inspired to move to the nation\u2019s capital by their close personal friend George Washington, the Tayloes purchased a strangely shaped plot of land near the White House. The obscure looking six-sided structure that later became known as the Octagon was designed specifically to fit that plot of land."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cIf you Google the Octagon, the story you\u2019re going to hear most often is about the Tayloe daughters being thrown from the third-floor stairs, whether a cat tripped them or whether John Tayloe threw one of them because they wanted to marry a British solider, those are completely untrue. The daughters didn\u2019t die in the house,\u201d said Ferrario."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"But there are four confirmed deaths in the house. Both John and Ann Tayloe did die in the Octagon. Their eldest son John Tayloe IV died there after sustaining injuries on the USS Constitution. Additionally, when the building was tenement housing, a man was shot and killed on the third floor in a poker game gone wrong."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The Tayloes also owned between 300-400 slaves, with 12-18 of them living in the basement of the Octagon at any given time. \u201cThat\u2019s important because we often talk about places with generational trauma and this is certainly one of them,\u201d said Ferrario."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Ferrario notes that people on tours of the building often refuse to go into the basement. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cWe\u2019ve had people who are particularly sensitive to feelings and traumatic experiences who will not go down there. I was once giving a tour to a group of college students when one woman felt like her hair was standing on the back of her neck and noticeably jumped. She told me that she had to go because she felt like someone was touching her neck,\u201d Ferrario said. \u201cI hadn\u2019t even mentioned the ghosts at that point.\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The Octagon previously housed \u201ccall bells,\u201d used by Tayloe to call the enslaved individuals at any time of the day, which eventually needed to be dismantled."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"After Tayloe passed away, there is a story that the bells were ringing nonstop. When a Tayloe family member went to touch the bells, he allegedly levitated off the floor. The bells would apparently ring erroneously until they were taken down."]]],[10,0],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"Staff ghost stories"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Ferrario says that AIA and Octagon staff have experienced some strange phenomenon in the building. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cA staff member working on a restoration was finishing up waxing the floors and had walked away for a few minutes. When he came back there were footsteps from the closet to the fireplace in the room they were working on,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no way to get into the closet from any other path and afterwards the footsteps just seemed to disappear.\u201d"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"AIA staff members have reported seeing \u201ca man on the stairs,\u201d who, according to Ferrario, is often referred to as Mr. Tayloe himself. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Additionally, a few years back a newly hired housekeeper quit because she allegedly saw a man dressed in black period clothing and a tall hat who looked at her tipped his hat. A man in black period clothing is allegedly one of the ghosts who haunts the Octagon, but this housekeeper wasn\u2019t made aware of that before she reported her sighting"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0," Ferrario spends a lot of time in the Octagon and hasn\u2019t experienced much herself aside from some shutters that she swears were open were in fact closed and vice versa. But earlier this summer she had a particularly strange experience."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cThe one thing I will say, and I have a colleague who can corroborate this, but this summer after some rainstorms there were guests on a tour, and they had hung their coats on a coatrack across from where I was sitting with my colleague. We were sitting there and one of the coat hangers just started moving smoothly across the coatrack with the coat on it. There was no one else in the room,\u201d said Ferrario. \u201cNeither of us were breathing and I looked at her and asked, \u2018did you see that,\u2019 and she did. Had I been alone I might have been able to write it off, but we couldn\u2019t figure out a decent explanation.\u201d"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Ultimately, despite scores of spooky sightings and experiences, Ferrario says it\u2019s important to maintain respect for the house and its history."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\u201cWe try to tell these stories respectfully and ensure respect for those who lived, have worked in, or helped build the house,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do our best respect the space if there are presences there or if not.\u201d"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Learn more about the history of the Octagon "],[0,[3],1,"here"],[0,[],0,". "]]],[1,"p",[]],[10,1]]}