1332 V St NW

Washington, DC

John Burroughs (b. April 3, 1837; d. March 29, 1921) was a famous American nature writer and poet who, like his literary counterpart, Walt Whitman, found DC during the Civil War. He immediately fell in love with the city. “There is perhaps not another city in the Union that has on its very threshold so much natural beauty and grandeur,” he said. He was originally interested in fighting in the war, but changed his mind once he saw the awful toll it had taken on returning soldiers. Instead, he became a clerk at the Treasury and built a house, located at 1332 V Street NW, on a plot of land that formerly belonged to St. Matthews Catholic Church. The grounds had served as a cemetery and, though many of the graves were relocated, Burroughs twice discovered that some were left behind. While installing a cistern, he came across two coffins. He found a third one when his newly built chimney shifted two feet further into the ground and crushed another coffin. Burroughs expected he’d get a haunted house out of the deal but later claimed, “I never saw any spooks on the premises.” The site of Burroughs' home is now the location of several buildings, including the Harrison Elementary School rec center and Ellington Apartments.