A creepy doll, a ghostly wail and D.C.'s haunted museum lore
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Meet Michael, the century-old doll who joined the Heurich family for dinner whenever they needed a 14th guest to ward off bad luck. Photos: Courtesy Heurich House Museum.
A mysterious wail from an empty bathroom. An eerie doll that joined a family for dinner. Museum artifacts that moved — and screamed — after dark.
- Welcome to the spooky side of D.C.'s museums.
Driving the boos: In September 2023, Smithsonian historic preservation director Carly Bond was working inside the nearly empty Smithsonian Castle. She tells Axios something unexplainable happened.
- Around 9:30am, she found all three stalls in a second-floor women's restroom locked from the inside.
- She tried the men's room next. Its door was also locked, and she heard someone wailing in distress.
Fearing an intruder, Bond fetched the building's security guard, who unlocked the windowless bathroom. Nobody was inside.
- "The Castle plays tricks on you," Bond recalled the guard telling her.
Why it matters: D.C.'s museums are filled with history — and more than a century's worth of ghost stories, superstitions and unexplained encounters.
🪆 Meet Michael: At Dupont Circle's Heurich House Museum, a rosy-cheeked doll has an unusual Victorian family history.
- When the Heurichs entertained 13 guests, they reportedly seated Michael at the dinner table to avoid the unlucky number.
- "Grandmother was very superstitious!" granddaughter Jan Evans recalled.
The backstory: Matriarch Amelia Heurich believed in Spiritualism, a movement centered on communicating with the dead.
- After her infant daughter died, Amelia sometimes attributed mysterious knocks in the mansion to her child's spirit.
- In 1928, she wrote: "I'm hearing many raps in my room. I hope the raps mean everything is good."
Reality check: The museum doesn't consider Michael haunted. But he's still on display in the dining room.
Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian: A 1900 Washington Post article chronicled strange happenings at what's now the Arts and Industries Building.
- Nearby residents were reportedly terrorized by a bird's eerie cries, which some blamed on the restless spirit of a bird that had died in the name of science.
- Night watchmen described bronze animals shifting after dark, masks moving inside their cases, and ghosts of former Smithsonian leaders wandering the halls.
Back at the neighboring Castle, Bond still can't explain her encounter. Security guards have also reported seeing a woman in white on a historic staircase.
- Six men are documented to have died inside the Castle, Bond says. Its north tower also contains the crypt of James Smithson, whose remains were relocated to the Mall. He's the only known person interred there.
- The Castle is closed for renovations, and the bathrooms where Bond had her encounter have since been demolished.
The bottom line: Bond is still wary. "I don't like talking about it when I'm in the building, because I think the Castle is always listening."