{"id":1649,"slug":"old-stone-house-washington-washington-d-c","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Old Stone House in Georgetown was begun after the Layman family's 1764 purchase — the oldest standing building in Washington, built before the city existed. The file's honest register includes the correction: archaeology and historical research refuted the former identifications as Washington's headquarters and a tavern — the house's legends having inflated before the scholarship cut them down.","The building's real spine is enough: a pre-Revolutionary house in the capital's oldest neighborhood, standing since before there was a capital."]},{"heading":"George on the third floor","paragraphs":["GW recounts the house's resident: a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George — a presence in the upper rooms of the city's oldest building, given a name the lore supplies. The file's ghost is generic in name and specific in location — a cold spot on the third floor, a presence the tours keep.","The file's shape is the archive's honesty: the Washington-headquarters legend refuted, the George presence reported — a house whose real history needed no embellishment and whose ghost needed no documentation."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Old Stone House is the file where the debunked and the reported coexist — Washington's oldest building, its myths corrected by archaeology, its ghost still on the third floor. The file keeps both corrections and claims: the house isn't what legend said, and it reportedly keeps George anyway.","A pre-Revolutionary house in the capital, its famous myths disproven, its cold spot still reported — the file's suggestion being that the real history was always enough."]}],"name":"Old Stone House","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_HOUSE","type_label":"Historic House","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites"],"desc":"Preserved Georgetown house with apparition folklore.","full_desc":"Old Stone House is a historic house in Washington, Washington, D.C.. Preserved Georgetown house with apparition folklore. Layman-family construction began after their 1764 purchase; Christopher died in 1765. Cassandra Chew expanded the building by 1775. Federal purchase in 1953 led to seven years of restoration. Local lore holds that GW describes a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George.","address":"3051 M Street NW","city":"Washington","county":null,"state":"Washington, D.C.","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":38.904243,"lon":-77.016524,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"GW age arithmetic conflicts with 1765 history; do not infer 1755. George is an alleged entity, not an identified historical resident.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":69.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":860,"type":"COLD_SPOTS","description":"GW describes a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George. Third floor is where the accounts cluster — the site's own map of where to look. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D. C. 's Famous Ghosts' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. Sources including 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D. C. 's Famous Ghosts' keep the claim in circulation. The pattern of small anomalies is itself the claim — none dramatic alone, persistent together.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"George","where":"Third floor","first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.75,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts","url":"https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/true-ish-stories-behind-dcs-famous-ghosts","publisher":"George Washington University / GW Today","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Layman-family construction began after their 1764 purchase; Christopher died in 1765. Cassandra Chew expanded the building by 1775. Federal purchase in 1953 led to seven years of restoration. The house's past is on record — this entry belongs to the verified layer of the site's file. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The detail is preserved in 'Old Stone House: history'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Old Stone House: history","url":"https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/historyculture/old-stone-house-history.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Archaeology and historical research refuted the former Washington-headquarters and tavern identifications. A house in Washington, Washington, D.C. with this much documented history gives the dossier substance underneath the lore. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Old Stone House: history'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Old Stone House: history","url":"https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/historyculture/old-stone-house-history.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"GW describes a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. It's the version the place will be remembered by, whether or not it's the true one.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts","url":"https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/true-ish-stories-behind-dcs-famous-ghosts","publisher":"George Washington University / GW Today","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}}],"entities":[{"name":"George","claimed_identity":"George","verified":null,"summary":"GW describes a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George. Third floor is where the sightings cluster. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. Sources including 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts' keep the claim in circulation. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is George.","behavior":"GW describes a third-floor cold-spot spirit called George.","area":"Third floor","first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts","url":"https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/true-ish-stories-behind-dcs-famous-ghosts","publisher":"George Washington University / GW Today","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"opening_hours":"Grounds daily sunrise to sunset; building schedule requires current check.","accessibility":"Only first-floor kitchen and store open; upper floors closed.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:21+00:00","source":{"name":"Old Stone House Visitor Center","url":"https://www.nps.gov/rocr/planyourvisit/old-stone-house-visitor-center.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},"sources":[{"name":"The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts","url":"https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/true-ish-stories-behind-dcs-famous-ghosts","publisher":"George Washington University / GW Today","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2},{"name":"Old Stone House: history","url":"https://www.nps.gov/rocr/learn/historyculture/old-stone-house-history.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Old Stone House Visitor Center","url":"https://www.nps.gov/rocr/planyourvisit/old-stone-house-visitor-center.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Old Stone House (Washington, D.C.)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Stone_House_(Washington%2C_D.C.)","desc":"United States historic place","extract":"The Old Stone House is one of the oldest structures in Washington, D.C. The house is also the last pre-revolutionary colonial building in Washington, D.C. Built in 1765, Old Stone House is located at 3051 M Street, Northwest in the city's Georgetown neighborhood. Sentimental local folklore preserved the Old Stone House from being demolished, unlike many colonial homes in the area that were replaced by redevelopment.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/The_Old_Stone_House.jpg/330px-The_Old_Stone_House.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":90,"lat":38.90555556,"lon":-77.06055556},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":2,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":3}}