{"id":1653,"slug":"united-states-capitol-washington-washington-d-c","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Capitol is the most haunted building in the world — the 1898 Philadelphia Press called it that, and the ghosts are the building's history. John Lenthall died when the vault collapsed in 1808 and cursed it with his last breath; the Demon Cat appears before national tragedies; John Quincy Adams died on the House floor.","The building is the monument — L'Enfant's pedestal, Thornton's design, the 1793 cornerstone, the dome that's the American icon. The soldiers quartered in the chambers during the Civil War, the bakery in the basement, the Statuary Hall where Adams fell — the building is the country's stage.","The ghosts are the legend — the Demon Cat's paw prints in the floor, the librarian who still works, the workers who died in the construction. The file keeps the building: the 1793 Capitol, the deaths inside it, and the hauntings that are the most documented in any government building.","The Capitol is the archive's monument file — the building that's the country's icon, the Demon Cat, and the most haunted government building in the world."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Capitol is the archive's monument file — the building that's the country's symbol, the deaths in its walls, and the ghosts that are the legend.","A building that's the country's icon keeps its dead — the file's suggestion being that the Capitol's hold is the history: the Lenthall curse, the Demon Cat's appearances before tragedies, and the halls where the country's ghosts still work."]}],"name":"United States Capitol","aliases":["U.S. Capitol Building"],"type":"GOVERNMENT_BUILDING","type_label":"Government Building","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","institutions"],"desc":"Legislative building with demon-cat folklore.","full_desc":"A government building in Washington, Washington, D.C., United States Capitol is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Legislative building with demon-cat folklore. Its signature presence is Demon Cat — the figure the file’s accounts keep returning to. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend, every one filed as account rather than fact. Access is restricted, and the file says so plainly.","address":"East Capitol Street NE and First Street SE","city":"Washington","county":null,"state":"Washington, D.C.","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":38.904243,"lon":-77.016524,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"Controlled public-tour arrangements; current scheduling and security restrictions need official visitor-center verification.","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":"Discovery or enrichment; earliest report and independent corroboration remain under research. Confidence measures source provenance, not supernatural reality.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":54.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.8,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":863,"type":"FOLKLORE_CREATURE","description":"GW recounts a giant spectral cat preceding national crises. The figure answers to Demon Cat in the retellings. The site in Washington, Washington, D. C. gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D. C. 's Famous Ghosts' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The account appears in 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D. C. 's Famous Ghosts'. Believers and skeptics keep the sighting alive for different reasons; both keep it.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Demon Cat","where":null,"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":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"GW recounts a giant spectral cat preceding national crises. United States Capitol's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. 'The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts' carries the account. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","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":"Demon Cat","claimed_identity":"Demon Cat","verified":null,"summary":"GW recounts a giant spectral cat preceding national crises. The presence goes by Demon Cat. The site in Washington, Washington, D.C. gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. The lore has a face now: Demon Cat. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","behavior":"GW recounts a giant spectral cat preceding national crises.","area":null,"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":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"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}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"United States Capitol","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol","desc":"Meeting place of the United States Congress","extract":"The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although no longer at the geographic center of the national capital, the U.S. Capitol forms the origin point for the street-numbering system of the district as well as its four quadrants. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a neoclassical style and has a white exterior.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/US_Capitol_east_side.JPG/330px-US_Capitol_east_side.JPG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":108,"lat":38.88972222,"lon":-77.00888889},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}