Sharyn Horowitz << back to resume

Project: The Old Stone House - Script

Client: BeyondGuide more...

Role: Writer

Challenge: Provide entertaining, engaging content to people touring Georgetown..

BeyondGuide is a walking tour of Washington DC delivered via mobile phone. The above is one of several scripts I wrote for them. Visit the BeyondGuide site for more information.

The Old Stone House, the oldest building in the district, is tucked behind the glamorous shops of M Street, at 3051 across from Thomas Jefferson Street.

First, what this isn’t. Historians have concluded that the Old Stone House was not the site of Suter’s Tavern, where politicians decided the close presidential election of 1800.

No, the Old Stone House is extraordinary simply because it’s so old, older than the city itself. In 1765, a woodworker named Christopher Layman built the house with local stone for his wife and sons, on a lot he had purchased for one pound, three shillings. The Laymans moved across the street not long after the house was finished. Christopher had died and his widow Rachael traded the house to Cassandra Chew, companion of the first mayor of the district, Robert Peters. The Chew family and their slaves lived here until the 1840s. Over the decades they built the kitchen and the two floors above it, now the main portion of the house. The second floor dining room with its white-painted paneling reflects the Chew family’s wealth and style.

After the Chews’ departure, the house served as a paint shop, a clock store, a men’s clothing store, and even the office for Parkway Motors, a used car dealer. The house suffered under all of this use and was facing demolition. But instead the National Park Service took over the property. Today, park rangers keep a fire going, show you what the Laymans and Chews might have made for dinner, and if you’re lucky, tell you about the house’s eleven ghosts.

When a house has been around as long as this one, perhaps one should expect it to have a collection of residents who just never left.

George is the most frightening character. He has been accused of shoving, strangling, and even raping women who dare enter his room on the third floor.

Don’t be afraid though, George is by far the worst of the lot. There are children, young women, and even the builder himself, Christopher Layman.

Layman’s ghost simply shows up every once in a while, wearing the clothes of a German carpenter. Of course it could be some other German carpenter, but the fellow never answers any questions about his identity.

If you feel a cold chill on the stairs, it might be the ghost of a young woman, wearing her hair in tightly curled ringlets. Or it might be an older woman, wearing a pre-Civil War style gown.

Young boys, one white and one black, play in the third floor hallway. By the fireplace, you might see a woman wearing a brown dress of 18th century style. Could it be Cassandra Chew, or Rachael Layman? Hard to say. Spend some time here and maybe you’ll figure it out.