The Most Haunted Hotels in Washington, D.C.

Posted: 04.18.2025 | Updated: 04.18.2025

Washington, D.C., is home to hundreds of hotels, and dozens of them have their own stories of phantasmic experiences. Yet, there are three haunted hotels — all built within three years of each other in the 1920s — that have the strongest connection to the spirit world. Is this a coincidence? Or do these grand hotels harbor a secret?

D.C. boasts some of the most interesting haunted locations in our entire country. Dating back to the very beginning of the United States, Washington’s spirits have all kinds of dark and conniving backstories. To see the most chilling sites for yourself in the country’s capital, book a ghost tour with DC Ghosts tonight. 

What is the most haunted hotel in Washington, D.C.?

Washington, D.C., has a lot of haunted hotels to choose from. But with particularly hair-raising backstories, we chose three as the most haunted D.C. hotels:

• The Lord Baltimore Hotel
• The Mayflower Hotel
• The Hay-Adams Hotel 

With stories involving presidents, stock market executives, and socialites, these three hotels elevate hauntings to a new level of class. 

The Lord Baltimore Hotel

In 1928, the elegant Lord Baltimore Hotel opened its doors for the first time. The 23-story hotel quickly cemented itself as one of the finest hotels in D.C., with a giant chandelier proving to be its crown jewel. However, in less than a year, the hotel would become well-known for a much darker event. 

The day was October 29, 1929. “Black Tuesday.” The day of the Stock Market crash. People around the world lost everything in the span of a few hours. 

In D.C., one of the business centers of the United States, the news was taken especially hard. People didn’t know how to cope with the grief and uncertainty of losing their (and their clients’) life savings. So, a small group of people decided it was better to end things than deal with this new reality, and the preferred method was to jump off of buildings. 

The Lord Baltimore Hotel was unlucky enough to be one of these buildings. Following the collapse of the Stock Market, over 20 people threw themselves from the high floors of the hotel. These are the souls that are said to still haunt the hotel to this day.

Figures Dressed in Old-Fashioned Clothing

Many guests have told staff how impressed they are by the old-timey actors they’ve hired to stand around their hotel. The problem is — these aren’t actors. 

Phantoms in fancy dresses and suits have been spotted on the mezzanine above the lobby as well as at the hotel bar, the LB Tavern. A couple has even been seen dancing in the grand ballroom. However, when the guest turns back, the couple disappears into thin air. The only evidence of their presence is the swinging chandelier above. 

Molly

The most famous ghost of the hotel is Molly, a young girl. Some say that she was also the victim of the mass suicide in 1929, and that her parents jumped off the ledge with her. 

While she may have a dark backstory, Molly couldn’t be a friendlier ghost. While her face is never seen, guests and staff will see the fabric of her dress or her shoe, followed by her childlike giggle. She’s especially known for playing with her ball, which she will bounce at guests as an invitation to play with her. 

The Mayflower Hotel 

Sometimes, a single event is so impactful that it forever changes the spectral makeup of a hotel. This is the case for the Mayflower Hotel. 

In 1925, the Mayflower Hotel opened to much fanfare. It quickly became a favorite for celebrities and politicians alike, including presidents. In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was staying at the hotel the night before his inaugural speech in 1933 when he penned the now-famous words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

The hotel became the go-to place for many high publicity events, including the inaugural ball following the induction of a new president. One of these balls is where the Mayflower Hotel’s haunted connection was born. 

The Private Tragedy of Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge is one of the few people in American history who rose to the seat of President without being elected as such. Coolidge was the vice president to Warren G. Harding, who served as the president of the United States for two years before dying from a sudden heart attack. Coolidge, no doubt shocked at the turn of events, privately swore in as the president on August 3, 1923. 

It took a few months to transition over to a new president, but by January, Coolidge was finally set to have his inaugural ball. Just before the big event, however, Coolidge and his wife were called to their 16-year-old son’s room by their doctor. 

Their son, Calvin Jr., had developed a blister on his foot from playing tennis with his brother. Inexplicably, the blister became infected, which turned into sepsis. In a matter of days, the once-healthy teenager was dead. 

Grief-stricken, the Coolidges did not attend the inaugural ball — but the event went on anyway. Now, every January 20, on the anniversary of Calvin Jr.’s death, strange things happen at the Mayflower Hotel. 

Lights will flicker around 10 pm, and an elevator is said to stop at the 8th floor without its button being pushed. The elevator won’t budge until 10:15 pm, when it will return to the ground floor — around the time the president would have walked into the ball. 

On that day, no matter what event is taking place, a plate of hors d’oeuvres and a glass of wine will be found in the ballroom. Perhaps this is Calvin Jr., finally getting to celebrate this event in death?

The Hay-Adams Hotel 

To understand the spirit at the Hay-Adams Hotel, we have to dive into the woman who lived on the premises before the hotel was built.  

Marian “Clover” Hooper Adams was an intelligent, well-regarded socialite in Washington in the early 1880s. She was one of the first female portraitists, and her photographs were starting to make her known outside the D.C. bubble. 

Marian was married to Henry Adams, great-grandson of President John Adams and grandson of President John Quincy Adams. Marian’s life seemed to be going swimmingly until 1885, when her father passed away. 

Marian’s father, Robert, had raised Marian and her two older siblings on his own when their mother had died when she was five. She developed a strong bond with her father, meaning she was utterly devastated when he passed. 

Marian fell into a deep depression that no one could pull her out of. In December of that year, Marian could no longer take the grief she was feeling, so she took her own life by ingesting the potassium cyanide that she used to develop film in her dark room. She died in her large home that faced Lafayette Square in 1885.

The Construction of the Hay-Adams Hotel

Henry went on to live 25 more years after his wife’s death. Not long after he passed, his estate was torn down, along with the manor of his neighbors, the Hays. In their place, a palatial hotel was erected, named after the families that had once lived on the plots. 

Shortly after the Hay-Adams Hotel’s grand opening in 1928, rumors started to circulate of a ghostly woman on the fourth floor. Staff and guests would hear a woman sobbing, unable to find any woman nearby. Housekeepers also reported hearing a woman call their name or ask, “What do you want?” 

On the fourth floor, people also often experience a strong, sudden smell of almond, which is what potassium cyanide is extracted from. 

Haunted D.C.

From haunted hotels to morbid landmarks, D.C. has everything a spectral lover could want in a city. To visit some of the most haunted places in D.C. for yourself, book a ghost tour with DC Ghosts. 

If you want to learn about another haunted hotel or manor from around the U.S., follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. To read about other D.C. haunted sites, check out our blog. 

Sources:

• https://traveler.marriott.com/hotel-experiences/haunted-hotel-stay/
• https://dcghosts.com/
• https://www.lordbaltimorehotel.com/rooms#:~:text=Located%20in%2023%20stories%20ascending,a%20modern%2C%20private%20club%20aesthetic.
• https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/lord-baltimore-hotel-paranormal-molly-haunted/
• https://www.themayflowerhotel.com/history/
• https://www.southernspiritguide.org/mayflower-mysteries-washington-d-c/
• https://www.masshist.org/features/clover-adams
• https://www.southernspiritguide.org/13-more-southern-rooms-with-a-boo/