OBAMAS' 'HAUNTED' HOUSE

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/1358051,CST-NWS-obama01.article

OBAMAS' 'HAUNTED' HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Staff say they've seen ghost at storied Hay-Adams Hotel
January 1, 2009

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Staff Reporter/mihejirika@suntimes.com

Across from the White House is a purported haunted house, which President-elect Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha will temporarily call home.

The first family is expected to move into the storied Hay-Adams Hotel in the capital this weekend.

Hotel spokesman Robert Volmer declined to comment. But Democratic sources say the Obamas, whose daughters start school Monday, will reside there until Jan. 15.

The Hay-Adams is among the top-rated luxury hotels in the world, but it's also allegedly home to a lingering resident, the ghost of Clover Adams, the wife of Henry Adams, a descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, who took her own life in 1885.

The five star, Italian Renaissance-style apartment hotel -- where rooms range from $395 to $6,000 for suites -- was named for Clover Adams' acclaimed author husband, and John Hay, private assistant to President Abraham Lincoln. Both owned homes at the site before the hotel was built in 1928.

The national landmark has 145 rooms with ornamental fireplaces, carved plaster ceilings, marble bathrooms, and Bose CD systems -- along with Clover Adams' ghost.

Staff members say the fourth floor is her favorite place, the National Trust for Historic Preservation reports.

"Examples of staff experiences include unexplained opening and closing of locked doors of unoccupied rooms; clock radios mysteriously turning off and on; the sounds of a woman crying softly in a room or a stairwell; or a voice of a woman asking a housekeeper, 'What do you want?' " the Trust reports.