EPA's Haunted House

Vampires get a wooden stake through the heart, werewolves need a silver bullet, but how do you kill ghosts? Well, you might take a wrecking ball to their house.

From 1972 to 1999 the principal headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency was located in a sprawling set of offices surrounding Waterside Mall in Washington DC (see aerial shot). In the early 1970s, Vice President Spiro Agnew helped broker a deal that put the agency in the converted set of apartment buildings and it quickly became an indelible part of our history.

Not a loveable part. The building was never attractive. A guard was killed by a drug dealer. The building apparently made some people sick. But, just by the accumulation of time, Waterside Mall collected memories that evoke nostalgia among some: retirement lunches at Jenny’s, file cabinets in shower stalls, the tread worn Safeway, the tiny “penthouse” elevator on the twelfth floor. And while it has fallen into disuse, some say the place still has lots of ghosts.

If there are ghosts, they’ll be losing their home soon. Tomorrow, November 1, at 4 pm, 300 people will gather at Waterside Mall for a ‘Demolition Party’ to kickoff the end of the Mall as we knew it. After that, some of those ghosts will only live on in memory.