Overview
The Octagon House in Washington, D.C., was completed in 1801 for the wealthy Tayloe family and is one of the capital's most historically significant early houses, a refined Federal-style building close to the White House. President James Madison and his wife Dolley lived there for a time in 1814-15 after the British burned the President's House during the War of 1812, and the Treaty of Ghent ending that war was reportedly ratified in an upstairs room. Long owned and managed in association with the American architectural profession, the house has limited public access today. Its ghostlore is among the oldest in the city, including stories of two Tayloe daughters said to have died in tragic falls on its sweeping spiral staircase, a tale of a bell that rang on its own, and figures, footsteps and cold spots reported over the years. These accounts should be presented as enduring folklore rather than fact, and public-access arrangements confirmed before publishing, since the house is not a conventional walk-in attraction.