Black Aggie

Black Aggie is the folkloric name given to a statue formerly placed on the grave of General Felix Agnus in Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, Maryland, United States.

It is an unauthorized replica – rendered by Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch – of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens' 1891 allegorical figure, popularly called “Grief”, at the Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[1] The statue is of a somber seated figure in a cowl or shroud.

Beginning with its installation in 1926, the replica was surrounded by many urban legends, principally that someone spending a night in its lap would be haunted by the ghosts of those buried there; that the spirits of individuals buried at Druid Ridge would annually convene at the statue; that no grass would grow on the ground where the statue's shadow would lie during the daytime; or that the statue would animate itself during the night, whether by physically moving or by showing glowing red eyes.

[1] These legends led to much unwelcome attention toward the statue; many people were caught breaking into the cemetery at night to visit it, and the pedestal was frequently vandalized.

[2] Black Aggie was moved from her previous home at the museum to a courtyard behind the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square in Washington, where she currently stands.