Of the apparitions that seem to have made the White House their home, not all of them are former presidents – or even men.
The wife of President John Adams has been seen by numerous people who have been guests of the White House. Since she preferred to do her own laundry, and chose a particularly sunny area – the East Room – she’s often seen walking about holding piles of laundry or hanging freshly washed linens on the line.
Dolly Madison has been seen in the rose garden on several occasions, and is said to have appeared when Edith Wilson – wife of Woodrow Wilson – made plans to have the rose garden replanted. As the gardeners prepared to go to work, Dolly appeared to them and told them to leave her garden alone and not bother her arrangement. The gardeners were so frightened that they fled in terror and refused to make any changes to the rose garden. To this day, it’s still arranged in the same way as it was when Dolly Madison was alive and well in the White House.
Willie Lincoln, one of the son’s of President Lincoln who died in his childhood at the White House, has been seen by a number of witnesses – including White House staff members – particularly in the area of what is referred to as Lincoln’s bedroom. At times, both he and his presidential father are seen there together.
Several diplomats and their wives who have visited the White House have complained of what appears to be a British soldier approaching them throughout the night, attempting to light their bed on fire with a torch that he’s holding in his hand. He’s believed to be the ghost of a British soldier who was involved in the burning of the White House in 1812.
The ghost of Major Henry Rathbone, who’d accompanied President Lincoln to the theater on the night of his assassination, has been witnessed by a number of observers. Another victim of John Wilkes Booth on that fateful night, Rathbone was stabbed in the head and neck region while attempting to escape the assassination scene. Although he lived, he never mentally recovered from the head trauma that he received and, eventually, killed himself and his wife 18 years after the fact.
In addition to its human counterparts, a spectral black cat has also been viewed by a multitude of people. According to witnesses, the cat appears in the basement of the White House immediately preceding a national tragedy, such as in the case of the Stock Market crash and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.