9. The Decatur House, President’s Park Neighborhood, Washington DC
At least two ghosts have been reported to haunt the Decatur House in Washington, just around the corner from the White House. One has appeared visibly, usually in a window, and the other has been heard, reported by many over the years. The house was the residence of US Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur, one of America’s most famous naval officers, who during the investigation into the conduct of another officer, James Barron, made comments which Barron found insulting. Thirteen years later Barron challenged Decatur to a duel, and Decatur, without informing his wife, left the house on the morning of March 22 to meet Barron on the field on honor. Decatur was mortally wounded, and returned to the house where he died in agony, attended by his grief stricken wife.
Within a year of his death, witnesses reported seeing Decatur on the second story of his house, looking out through a window down H Street. Others reported seeing the Commodore leaving his home through the back door early in the morning, carrying his case of dueling pistols. Decatur had been an active member of Washington society, easily recognized, and his image appeared on cards, drinking vessels, commemorative plates, and other items, as did those of other hero officers of the early American navy. So many reports of his image appearing in the window occurred that the window was bricked over. Later, reports of a sobbing, and sometimes wailing woman, being heard within the Decatur House long after the death of his widow, emerged. The Decatur House, the Octagon House, and the White House are three neighboring hotbeds of ghostly reports, making Washington DC one of the most haunted cities in the world.