Legend 6: EAVESDROPPING IN THE HOUSE

If you visit the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol, and stand by the bronze marker indicating the location of John Quincy Adams’s desk, it is possible to hear a faint whisper from another point 50 feet to the east. Thus, the legend goes that in his early days as a Representative, Adams sat at this spot and listened to his opponents plotting against him on the opposite side of the large Hall. His ability to anticipate opposition confounded his adversaries until the secret of the “whispering stones” was discovered. At this juncture, heavy draperies were hung between the pillars in an effort to stifle the loud whispers, but it was to no avail.

There are a number of reasons why this legend likely involves more fiction than fact. A renovation in 1902 brought about some changes to the dome of the hall, which is the source of the odd echoes. Some of the echoes were destroyed, others modified, and new ones may have been created. Thus, it is quite possible that this exact echo did not exist before the 1902 renovation. Even had this echo survived intact through the various renovations, the legend would still have required the eavesdroppers to have been standing at one particular spot every time they conspired against Adams. Finally, there is no contemporary account of anything of this nature happening; in fact, the first descriptions of the echoes come well after the hall had been vacated by the House of Representative and turned over to the Statuary collection.
Nonetheless, the echoes remain a fixed part of every tour of Statuary Hall to this day, and every Capitol tour guide briefly leaves his or her charges at the location of the Adams desk and whispers to them from a spot many feet away.

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