Haunted Georgetown

1. Home of Dr. Grafton Tyler

Washington, DC

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When you reach the corner of 30th Street and NW N Street, you will see the white-painted home of Dr. Grafton Tyler, who resided in Georgetown during the Civil War. Dr. Tyler was a notorious Southern sympathizer who closed his shutters every day for the duration of the war, even in the sweltering heat, in order to avoid seeing the Union Flag flying over the Ladies' Seminary across the street. Dr. Tyler's cousin was Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his brother-in-law, Walter Bowie, was a southern spy. At the height of the war, Bowie was caught and locked up in the Capitol Prison for espionage to await death by hanging. Dr. Tyler'™s wife, Bowie's sister, went to visit Bowie in his jail cell. During her visit she kissed him goodbye, passing him a note from her mouth to his. The note said she had bribed a guard. That night, Bowie was able to escape jail and flee to the South. At the end of the war when Richmond was captured by the Union army in April, 1865, Dr. Tyler's house was the only house with darkened windows on this street. Noticing this, Union soldiers gathered around his front steps and serenaded the doctor with songs of celebration and hung the Union's colors around his door.