Gilded Age Dupont Circle mansion of brewer Christian Heurich, who died in an upstairs bedroom in 1945; staff report footsteps and lights switching back on.
1307 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Admission charged for guided tours; the museum garden and some programs are free. Check the museum site for current pricing and hours.
Access
Limited Access
Historic four-story mansion with stairs between floors; the upper floors are reached by stairs only.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1894 · Best-preserved late-Victorian mansion in Washington, DC · Home of brewer Christian Heurich, a major District employer · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Former headquarters of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
The Heurich House Museum sits at 1307 New Hampshire Avenue NW, near Dupont Circle. It was built between 1892 and 1894 by architect John Granville Meyers for Christian Heurich, a German immigrant who became one of Washington's most successful brewers. The Romanesque Revival mansion was among the first fireproof residences in the city and was outfitted with elaborate carved woodwork, painted ceilings, and a basement Bierstube, or beer hall, where Heurich entertained guests.
Heurich ran the Christian Heurich Brewing Company, for many years one of the largest private employers in the District. He lived to 102 and died in the house in 1945. After the death of his widow, Amelia, in 1956, the property passed to the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., which used it as its headquarters for decades.
The mansion later became an independent house museum dedicated to interpreting the Heurich family and Gilded Age Washington. Because the family occupied the house continuously and so little was altered, the museum preserves an unusually complete set of original furnishings and finishes.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains one of the best-preserved Victorian-era mansions in the city. The museum offers guided tours, a public garden, and seasonal programming.
Sources
The Heurich House has a steady, low-key haunted reputation that the museum itself has been willing to discuss. In a 2012 WAMU report on whether the house is actually haunted, staff and volunteers described footsteps in empty halls, lights that came back on after being switched off, and a general sense of presence on the upper floors near the bedrooms.
Many of the accounts attach to Christian Heurich, who died in the house in 1945 at age 102 after living there for half a century. The framing in the lore is benign: a longtime owner still keeping an eye on the home he built rather than anything menacing. Other reports describe sounds in the basement Bierstube and small objects seeming to shift.
Museum staff in the same coverage offered ordinary explanations for some of the noises, including an old grandfather clock and sounds carrying from outside, which keeps the house's reputation closer to atmosphere than to documented phenomena. The reports are anecdotal staff experiences rather than the findings of a formal investigation, but they have made the Brewmaster's Castle a regular entry in Washington haunted-history coverage.
Notable Entities
Docent-led tour of the 1894 Heurich mansion, covering the family's brewing business, the home's original Gilded Age interiors, and its preservation as a museum. Tour content and dates are set by the museum.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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