Photo by Wikipedia user Kmf164.

Located in a no-mans land near the Foggy Bottom neighborhood and close to the National Mall at 18th and New York Avenue, the Octagon House was built in 1800 as a home for wealthy plantation owner Colonel John Tayloe III. The house has a fascinating past and wonderful architectural details as it employs an octagon as its primary design feature.

The house temporarily became the home to President James Madison after the White House burned during the War of 1812. In the next few decades, the Tayloe family continued to live there, selling the house in 1855. The house was used as a hospital during the Civil War, and then as an apartment building.

The house is also known as one of the more haunted buildings in the District. You name the resident, they apparently haunt the house. Two of Colonel Tayloe’s daughters died in the house. In fact, both fell down the stairs to their death. Both apparently fell during an argument about their relationships: one with a British soldier during the War or 1812 and the other for her elopement with a suitor that her father did not see as suitable.

Dolly Madison’s ghost is also said to have taken up residence in the house. Her ghost has been seen near the fireplace in the ballroom as well as walking to the garden. Apparently her ghost smells of lilacs, her favorite flower. Slaves that the Tayloe family kept are also known to haunt the house. The ghosts of the slaves would announce their presence by ringing the bells of the house, now removed, loudly.

The building, designed by William Thornton, first architect of the U.S. Capitol, was dramatically different than the architecture in style at the time. The building, built to accommodate an odd-shaped lot, combines a circle, two rectangles, and a triangle to make up its unusual shape.

The building has served as the home of the American Institute of Architects since 1899, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and was restored to its original period detail in 1996.