Haunted Georgetown

5. Forrest Hall

Washington, DC

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This Greek Revival building was opened in 1951 by Bladen Forrest. Forrest was a wealthy developer, and this building was both a dance hall and a lecture hall before the Civil War. When war broke out in 1861, the building was occupied by the Union Army and converted to Forrest Hall Military Prison, a holding facility for prisoners of war and Union Army deserters. Food and medical care were in short supply, and were reserved for loyal Union troops. Conditions in the prison were so bad they proved deadly to some of the captives. According to government records, three prisoners died here during the course of the war. After the war, women'?s temperance groups met here to advocate for the prohibition movement which would ultimately lead to the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, banning alcoholic beverages. The author, Mark Twain, gave speeches here in the 1860s, including a talk where he reportedly introduced himself as follows: "?I am here by a request, made by several ladies, that I should deliver a lecture for the poor. I always had a grudge against the poor, and therefore embraced the opportunity to inflict a lecture on them." In 1919, the old caretaker of the building reported that many times he had heard on the buildings on the third floor, the sounds of the southern-style Antebellum balls of Georgetown's pre-Civil War era, including the haunting melody of solitary instruments playing, the swish of silk skirts and the stomping of boots in unison on the building'?s wooden upper floors.