Surratt House Museum
Mary Surratt’s 1852 tavern served as a safe house for Confederate couriers and—per the 1865 trial that sent her to the gallows—a conspiracy stop for John Wilkes Booth. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the U.S. government. The county-run museum preserves the house and its contested history.
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Is Surratt House Museum haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 named entity — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed anecdotal. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The Surratt House was built in 1852 — Mary Surratt's tavern and boarding house in Clinton, Maryland, where John Wilkes Booth collected hidden supplies while fleeing after Lincoln's assassination. The file's documented spine is the conspiracy's geography: the assassin's first stop on the escape route, at the house of the woman the government would hang for it.
Mary Surratt was tried as a Lincoln-assassination conspirator and hanged July 7, 1865 — the first woman executed by the federal government. The file's register is the trial's contested verdict: a boarding-house keeper hanged on testimony that historians still debate.
Mary's house
The file keeps Mary Surratt as its entity — the executed woman attached to the house where the assassin stopped. The legend layer is thin, and the file is honest about it: the house's claim is the documented stop and the documented hanging, the conspiracy's ground zero in Maryland.
The contested guilt is the file's weight — a woman hanged as a conspirator whose actual knowledge remains argued, her house kept as the museum of a verdict that history hasn't settled.
Why this file matters
The Surratt House is the archive's assassination-route file — Booth's first stop fleeing Ford's Theatre, the home of the first woman the federal government executed. The stop is documented; the guilt is still debated; the house keeps both.
A tavern where an assassin collected supplies keeps its keeper's memory — the file's suggestion being that Mary Surratt's case is the conspiracy's unresolved register, her house holding the question the gallows didn't answer.
The Surratt House is a historic house and house museum located at 9110 Brandywine Road in Clinton, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The house is named for John and Mary Surratt, who built it in 1852. Mary Surratt was hanged in 1865 for being a co-conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. It was acquired by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in 1965, restored, and opened to the public as a museum in 1976.
Surratt House MuseumThe record of claims
Staff and visitors report a woman’s figure and voices in the house. The figure answers to Mary Surratt in the retellings. The reports at Surratt House Museum are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. 'Surratt House Museum' carries the account. Nothing here would make headlines alone; together the reports make a pattern.
Alleged entities
Staff and visitors report a woman’s figure and voices in the house. The presence goes by Mary Surratt. The reports at Surratt House Museum are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. A named spirit outlasts an anonymous one; the file's name is Mary Surratt. The file stays open on it.
Documented history
Booth collected hidden supplies here while fleeing after Lincoln’s assassination. Surratt House Museum's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. Sources including 'The Surratt Historic Site and Museum' carry the record. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Media reportedSurratt SocietyMary Surratt was tried as a Lincoln-assassination conspirator and hanged July 7, 1865—the first woman executed by the federal government. Surratt House Museum's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Surratt House Museum'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
Verified historyWikipedia
Sources on file
- 01The Surratt Historic Site and MuseumSurratt Society · historical society · A2
- 02Surratt House MuseumWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
New record from encyclopedia/official-source pass; VERIFY task auto-queued for primary-source corroboration.