When George Washington decided to gift 2,000 acres of his beloved Mount Vernon estate as a wedding present to his nephew Lawrence Lewis and his step-granddaughter Eleanor 'Nelly' Parke Custis in 1799, he envisioned a grand estate where family legacy would flourish for generations. What he couldn't have foreseen was that Woodlawn Plantation would become one of the most actively haunted locations in Northern Virginia, where the spirits of its illustrious past refuse to rest.Today, park rangers, preservation staff, and visitors regularly report encounters that defy explanation: phantom footsteps in empty hallways, the rustle of ball gowns on staircases where no one stands, the melancholic sound of a harp playing music that ended two centuries ago, and most disturbing of all, the anguished cries that echo from the cellar where enslaved people once lived and suffered.Through extensive interviews with National Trust staff members, volunteer docents, and visitors who've experienced the unexplainable, a portrait emerges of a house that remains very much alive with the echoes of its complex and often tragic history.