St. John's Episcopal Church

The story

St. John's Episcopal Church stands at the corner of 16th and H Streets NW, on the edge of Lafayette Square and a block from the White House. For two centuries it has served almost as the White House's own chapel, which is why people call it the "Church of the Presidents."

Episcopal worship in the new capital goes back to December 1794, when Maryland created Washington Parish out of older parishes after giving up land for the federal district. St. John's was organized as a parish in 1815 and named for Saint John the Evangelist. The National Register nomination traces the effort back to 1809 and says construction had to wait until after the War of 1812, when British troops set fire to much of Washington.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, one of the most important architects of early America, offered his design for free. The cornerstone was laid in September 1815, while Latrobe was also directing repairs to the burned White House across the open ground, and he supervised both projects. The nomination dates the ceremony to September 4, while the parish's own history gives September 14. The first service took place on October 27, 1816. Latrobe planned a Greek cross covered by a shallow dome with a lantern cupola. A circular gallery ran around the interior, and the pulpit stood directly in front of the communion table so the whole congregation could see it. The Rev. William Dickinson Hawley was rector from 1817 to 1845 and also served as chaplain of the U.S. Senate.

The link with the presidency began right away. In 1816 a committee offered President James Madison a pew without asking him to buy it. He accepted but insisted on paying the usual annual rent. The NRHP text says the next five presidents (Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren and Harrison) sat in the same place. Its number has changed over time. Madison's choice was pew 28. It became 58 in 1843, when John Tyler paid to reserve it for presidents permanently, and it has been pew 54 since 1883. Each president in office since Madison has come to at least one service, many Inauguration Day services have been held here, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nomination says, spent a few minutes in prayer here on inauguration days. Dolley Madison was baptized and confirmed here, and the funerals of Presidents Harrison and Taylor left from the church.

The congregation soon outgrew the building. In 1820-1822 the nave was extended west to 16th Street, which added 42 pews, a Doric portico and a three-stage tower, and changed the plan from a Greek cross to a Latin cross. Latrobe, who died of yellow fever in 1820, did not design this addition, and the nomination says its architect is unknown. Box pews were removed in 1842. James Renwick carried out a major remodeling in 1883 that added a chantry and many stained-glass memorial windows and brought seating to 780. McKim, Mead and White redid the chancel in marble in 1919-1920, and structural repairs followed in 1950-1951.

The legend

The church's one ghost story is tied to the bell in its steeple. The bell weighs close to 1,000 pounds and was cast in August 1822 by Joseph Revere, Paul Revere's son, at his Boston foundry. It was hung at St. John's on November 30 of that year. President Monroe approved $100 in public money toward the purchase because the bell would also sound the alarm for nearby homes and government offices. Washington has two Revere bells, both from 1822, and this is the only one that has rung continuously since it was installed.

The tale goes that whenever the bell rings out for a famous person's death, six figures dressed in white take their seats in the presidential pew as midnight strikes, and then fade away. Wikipedia credits the story to "at least two accounts." The only one it cites is Dennis William Hauck's Haunted Places: The National Directory (2002), a nationwide compilation of ghost lore, and that is the earliest written version identified. Nobody says who the six figures are supposed to be, when they were first seen, or who saw them.

That is very little evidence. No paranormal investigation or television episode has been recorded here, and the parish's history page does not mention ghosts at all. The story is best treated as Washington folklore attached to a real setting: a pew kept for presidents and a bell that has tolled through two centuries of national mourning. It should not be read as an eyewitness account. If you are curious, the history around the legend is solid and easy to check: Joseph Revere's bell, Monroe's $100, and the pew that has carried three numbers.

What remains today

St. John's is still an active parish, and the National Register nomination described it as in fine condition. The structure is brick finished in yellow stucco with white trim, and it keeps the shape it took after the 1820s enlargement: the domed center, the portico facing 16th Street and the steeple with the Revere bell. Twenty-seven memorial windows line the walls. The church's treasures, according to the nomination, include an eighteenth-century prayer book signed by many presidents and kept in their pew, a silver chalice given by John Tayloe, who built the nearby Octagon House, and a jeweled communion cup of solid gold.

With Blair House and Decatur House, St. John's is one of the few original buildings still standing around Lafayette Square. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and lies within the Lafayette Square historic district. A one-story link joins it to Ashburton House, its parish house and a landmark in its own right.

Visiting

St. John's is a working church in downtown Washington, D.C., and visitors are welcome at services. Check the parish's own website for service times and for any chance to visit outside worship. It is above all a place of prayer, so be quiet, don't interrupt services, and ask before taking photos inside. No ghost tour is known to stop at the church. When the church is closed, you can still see the portico, the steeple and the historic houses around the square from the public sidewalk.

Sources

1. National Register nomination #66000868 (texte intégral) — U.S. National Park Service · Public record
2. National Register of Historic Places file (NRHP #66000868) — U.S. National Park Service · Public domain (U.S. government)
3. St. John's Episcopal Construction Of Church - Decatur, Illinois — Internet Archive · St. John’s Episcopal Church – Decatur, Illinois, 1890-01-01 · Public domain (pre-1929)
4. Wikimedia Commons category : St. John's Episcopal Church (Washington, D.C.) — Wikimedia Commons
5. USGS 1:125000-scale Quadrangle for Mt. Vernon, VA 1890 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1890 · Public domain (USGS)
6. USGS 1:250000-scale Quadrangle for Washington, DC 1957 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1957 · Public domain (USGS)
7. USGS 1:62500-scale Quadrangle for Washington, MD 1900 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1900 · Public domain (USGS)
8. History — St. John's Church, Lafayette Square (official site) — St. John's Church, Lafayette Square (official site
9. St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square — Wikipedia
10. Wikipedia article — Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Text written by AI from the sources above and checked by a separate AI fact-check (how we work). Images: credits and licenses under each picture.