HGB Ep. 574 - Merchant's House Museum

Moment in Oddity - Jumping Spiders Dream (Suggested by: Jared Rang)

In terms of spiders, jumping spiders tend to be the cutest, at least in our opinion. There are many videos out there of Peacock Sparklemuffin jumping spiders going through their breeding dances. They look like they are waving at the camera along with other antics. Back in August of 2022, there was a study published by Harvard that revealed that jumping spiders dream! The researchers analyzed 34 juvenile jumping spiders. Due to the spider's young age their exoskeletons were translucent. Using an infrared camera the jumping spiders were observed in a REM dream-like state with the same types of characteristics found in humans and other mammals. The behaviors exhibited were limb movements like leg twitching and curling. It is believed that this is the first study of its kind performed on terrestrial invertebrates. What ultimately led to this study seems somewhat happenstance. There is a European jumping spider that hangs from a silk thread while sleeping at night. The researchers happen to notice how the spiders would twitch and move almost like dreaming. They waited for newly emerged babies to conduct their study due to the slings (another name for baby jumping spiders) translucency. While filming the young spiders they were actually able to see that the retinas were moving at the same time as the other movements the spiders were displaying. Pondering the idea that creatures like jumping spiders actually dream is fascinating, but it also certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Cochise Arrested

In the month of February, on the 4th, in 1861, Apache Chief Cochise was arrested in Arizona by the U.S. Army for raiding a ranch. Cochise was a prominent leader of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, known as the Chokonen band. A rancher's son had been kidnapped during an Apache raid and the rancher as well as the U.S. Army accused Cochise and his people of the attack. It was later proven that the Coyotero Apache tribe were the ones who attacked and kidnapped the Arizona rancher's son. Lieutenant George Bascom was leading the confrontation of Chief Cochise prior to his arrest. Cochise was able to escape while being held captive in a tent. The Apache Chief would not accept being unjustly imprisoned and the arrest led to the long conflict known as the Apache Wars, which are often referred to as the "Bascom Affair". Over a ten year span, Cochise and his warriors heightened their attacks on American settlements. By 1872, the United States wanted the tensions and raids by Cochise to cease. The tribe was offered a large reservation in the southeastern portion of Arizona if the Chief were to discontinue his warfare against the Americans. Chief Cochise conceded and said, "The white man and the Indian are to drink of the same water, eat of the same bread, and be at peace".

Merchant's House Museum (Suggested by: Marie Fisher) 

The Merchant's House Museum at 29 East Fourth Street in Manhattan is a relic from the past making it a treasure in New York City. The house has stood for over 180 years and seen many changes to Manhattan, but one thing that hasn't changed is its interior. It is likely the only house in New York City with a fully preserved 19th-century interior. There are those who claim this is the most haunted house in Manhattan and many of the spirits belong to the family who lived in the house for generations, the Tredwells. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Merchant's House Museum.

Fourth Street in Manhattan starts at Avenue D and continues to Broadway, where it becomes West 4th Street. There is a four block section from MacDougal Street to University Place called Washington Square South which forms the southern border of Washington Square Park. The museum is about 5 blocks down from Washington Square Park. This is also just outside of Greenwich Village in an area called NoHo short for North of Houston Street. NoHo has gone through three transitions beginning as a residential neighborhood where the wealthy built their houses in the styles of Federal and Greek Revival. Many of the buildings here were made from cast-iron to facilitate manufacturing in the 19th century as factories and warehouses were built. The 1960s brought an evolution as an artistic center that attracted artists and bohemians like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol. Actors Sam Shepard and Edward Norton have lived here and David Bowie lived here for a time. 

Hatter Joseph Brewster built his four-story Federal-style brick house between 1831 and 1832. No one is sure who the architect was, but the National Park Service claims it was Menard Lafever. Architectral historians believe that the house was only inspired by some of Lafever's designs. The house is three bays across with a raised basement and is a typical rowhouse from the 19th century. An iron railing lines the facade and leads up a short stairway leading to the front door that is framed by Ionic columns. The slate tile gable roof is steeply sloped with two protruding dormer windows on the fourth story. 

The interior featured 18 rooms with the front door opening up into a square vestible with a marble floor. The first story hosted the formal double parlors with mahogany doors. The basement had the kitchen and there was a family space with fireplace that was used like a dining room. The kitchen had a built in Dutch Oven, dumbwaiter, stove, brickoven and sink that got water from a backyard cistern. The stairs leading to the second floor had a door underneath that lead to a tea room. The second floor and third floors had family bedrooms and the top floor had the servant quarters. The interior has delicate plasterwork, which is endangered today because of a push to develop the land next the house. There is a way you can help to preserve the house by going to the website and getting information to write to the city government. https://merchantshouse.org There is Siena marble throughout on the floors and with the mantlepieces. Other floors were covered with moquette carpet. Moquette is a type of woven pile fabric in which cut or uncut threads form a short dense cut or loop pile.

One of the unique features in the house is a secret passage. No one can ascertain when exactly it was built, so lots of legends have cropped up around it. These stories range from a way to sneak suitors into the house to another way to reach the street to a part of the Underground Railroad. The real reason is probably something boring like it helped facilitate the maintenance of the sliding parlor doors. The second floor has three bedrooms coming off a long hallway that extends the entire length of the house. Two of the bedrooms are considered Master Bedrooms and have Greek Revival-style doorways and windows with pilasters, lintels, architraves, and cornices. The four-poster beds in both bedrooms are original. The children's rooms are on the third floor and the decor is much plainer. The fourth floor had four bedrooms for the servants. In the 1850s, a manually-pulled elevator supported by a rope and a winding mechanism would be added between floors that carried Sarah Tredwell to her room.

Joseph Brewster came to New York City in 1814 and began his trade as hatter and within five years, he had opened up two stores. His hattery business would become one of the largest in making hats. Because he was successful, he was able to invest in real estate. His success in trade enabled him to invest in property. He built several homes besides the house that would come to be known as the Merchant's House. He lived in it for two years and the museum pays homage to him by displaying his portrait above the mantelpiece in the dining room. Brewster sold the house to Seabury Tredwell for $18,000. Seabury Treadwell was a Hardware Merchant and very successful. He was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers. In the early 1800s, hardware wasn't just tools and nails. It was anything made out of metal. By 55 he had made his fortune, so he decided it was time to move his family into what was considered the suburbs of New York City. Seabury had married Eliza Parker in 1820, when he was 40 years old. She was the daughter of his landlady and 23 years old. They had eight children: Elizabeth (1821), Horace (1823), Mary (1825), Samuel (1827), Phebe (1829), Julia (1833), Sarah (1835). and Gertrude (1840) who wasn't born at the time they moved into the house. They also had four Irish servants that they moved into the house with them.

We don't often talk about the Irish servants these rich families in New England and New York employed. For the Tredwell's, they changed out their staff every ten years. The houses' website describes their lives and work thus, "The work of the servants was physically demanding, and their hours were long. They were on call 24 hours a day. They were expected to rise before dawn and their work was not finished until after dark, with only one afternoon off per week. Every day the servants climbed flights of stairs over and over carrying heavy buckets of coal upstairs and ashes downstairs; clean water up, dirty water down; clean clothes and linens up, dirty clothes and linens down. The servants washed and ironed and cleaned and cooked and dusted and scrubbed on their hands and knees. And only at day’s end could they sew and mend their own clothes."

The six Tredwell girls attended an elite private female academy known as Mrs. Okill’s Academy. This was one of the most elite private female academies at that time and women came from as far as Ohio and Louisiana to attend. The Tredwell daughters would have been highly sought after by men because they stood to inherit their father's fortune and they were high up in the New York social circles. The museum has some of the girls' dance cards in their archives. There are several playbills as well. Gertrude was the youngest daughter and family lore holds that she had a gentleman caller named Luis Walton. Luis’ father was a physician who had trained in England, so many people in America felt that his medical education was on a lower tier. The Walton family were Roman Catholics, while the Tredwells were staunch Episcopalians, so they didn't like Catholics. The Tredwells had servants from Ireland and Luis' mother was Irish. So one can only imagine what Seabury thought of this suitor of Gertrude's. So the couple never married, but Gertrude did mention him in a letter she wrote in 1924 to a nephew. It read, "You know Dr. Walton had Angina Pectoris but he lived for years with it – Strained himself climbing the Alps." Gertrude had maintained that if she couldn't marry Luis, she wouldn't marry at all and she didn't. Neither did Luis. Luis died in 1903 and the age of 63. A carte-de-visite (photograph mounted on a piece of card) of Luis was found in Gertrude's possessions. 

Samuel married Mary Louisa Thorp in 1849 and she would die in 1870. He married again in 1884 to Ella Williams. Despite this big family, only six direct descendants are alive today and they all come from Samuel and Ella. Seabury died in 1865 and Eliza died in 1882. Her daughters Elizabeth and Mary had preceded her in death and Horace would follow in 1885. He never married. Three of the Tredwell daughters lived in the house together in their older years because they never married: Gertrude, Julia and Phebe. A tragic accident occurred on October 3, 1907, at 6 o’clock in the morning. Phebe was making her way downstairs when she fell down the stairs, breaking her femur. She was 78 years old at the time and it killed her. Here's a little fun fact, falls on stairs are the second most common cause of accidental death, after car accidents. 

Gertrude remained in the house until her death in 1933. She died in the house. The house then passed onto her niece Lillie Nichols who decided to sell the contents at auction and then sell the house. A distant cousin named George Chapman purchased the house because of its historical value and he established a non-profit organization to operate the house while he funded it for the next 25 years. it. Chapman died in 1959 and the house fell into disrepair.  In 1962, The Decorators Club of New York City, which at the time was the oldest professional women’s organization of interior designers in the country, decided they wanted to rescue the house as their next project and they raised funds and began restoring the furnishings, carpets and draperies. They got the house designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. 

Extensive structural repairs needed to be made in 1968 and so New York University Architect Joseph Roberto was called in to help and he and his wife Carol fell in love with the house. Roberto was supposed to just serve as an advisor, but he jumped in and over the next nine years a full restoration of the house was completed including all the beautiful ornamental plaster work. Whenever possible, Roberto reused original materials. The Museum reopened to the public in November 1979. In 1981, the interior of the Merchant’s House was formally designated as a landmark by the City of New York and part of the reason is because the ornamental plasterwork. They offer guided tours and self-guided tours and hold various events. 

The museum features some cool collections. "More than 100 pieces of Tredwell furniture dating between 1815 and 1880, almost all of New York City origin, grace the formal parlors and private family rooms, including a set of 12 chairs attributed to Duncan Phyfe, one of New York’s finest cabinet makers. Lighting includes candle stands to Argand oil lamps with crystal prisms to fancy gas chandeliers, the lighting Tredwell devices, numbering close to 70, represent a full range of 19th century lighting technology. Among the garments and accessories held in the collection are a remarkable group of 39 dresses worn by Tredwell women ranging in style from 1815 to 1890, as well as hats, parasols, shawls, shoes, gloves, reticules, and fans. Recently, the Merchant’s House collaborated with 3D modeling firm PaleoWest Archaeology to create an interactive 3D model of one of the 39 dresses in the Tredwell Costume Collection. The model allows the viewer to look at the dress from all angles and zoom in on details."

They do ghosts tours in the house and staff and guests have all experienced unexplained things. Reports of paranormal happenings started all the way back in the 1930s when the house first opened as a museum. The spirits are thought to belong to Tredwell family members. (Book)

Anthony Bellhov is a museum board member and tour guide at the house. He told HauntTV, "During some of the ghost tours we have had people feel someone breathing on their neck and they turn around and no one's there. Some are tapped on the shoulder. Figures have been seen walking by in rooms that are empty. We don't know how well the Tredwells like having their house open to the public, but they seem to be accommodating us and we like to think it's because they realize that with the public coming here we can raise the funds to keep the house standing." He added, "The house has changed so little since that time, if Einstein's correct and time is not linear but just keeps happening I like to think that sometimes we just bump into each other. They're still here living their lives, using the objects that are still here in the house and we're here at a different date you know a different time and sometimes we just overlap and we just bump into each other. Which leads me to wonder, do they see us and think we're ghosts? They might not even see the people that are around and they just might be still in their same time and place when they left it so it's very normal to them."

The museum does a raffle every Christmas and one of the raffle prizes several years ago was this beautiful crystal dish. Staff had placed the dish in the center of a table over the weekend and a winner was coming to pick it up on Monday. When they came in on Monday morning, they found the dish shattered in pieces on the floor. The museum had been closed all weekend, so they had no explanation as to how the dish could've become broken.

Eldest son Horus Tredwell is thought to be one of the spirits here. Roberta Belulovich of Visitor Services tells the story about two men who came to do a self-guided tour one day. About five or 10 minutes after they came in, one of them came up the stairs and he said, "I saw Horus in the family room." Roberta asked him, "How did you know it was Horus" and he showed me the book that had family pictures in the book and he said it was him. Roberta asked the man to describe what Horus was doing or how he appeared and he answered that he was dressed all in black and was carrying a top hat and he was leaning on the mantle piece. It was as if he was in mourning and Horus appeared to be very sad. 

Executive director, Margaret Halsey Gardiner, told the New York Times back in 1998, "Many visitors got a ''cold, creepy feeling'' in Gertrude's bedroom. ''For months, I just couldn't make it all the way up the stairs to turn the lights on in the morning. Finally, I told them, 'I come in peace,' and we've been fine ever since.'" One of the craziest ghost stories is about Gertrude. Gertrude was the only Tredwell child born in the house and she died in the house, so she lived in the house for nearly 100 years. Despite her father leaving a substantial sum to his daughters, the money had run out by the time Gertrude died and there were several mortgages on the house. She had loved the house and probably didn't want to leave. Shortly after her death in 1933, the neighbors were all outside watching their children play. The kids had gotten pretty rowdy playing stick ball right in front of the house and suddenly the front door of the Tredwells' house opened and a small elderly woman wearing a brown dress rushed out on the stoop and waved her arms as she yelled at the kids. She was very upset. And the kids were terrified. The old woman went back in the house and the crazy thing is that all the neighbors witnessed this. And they knew Gertrude had passed away two weeks before and that no one should've been in the house. They all recognized her as Gertrude. (Book)

Anthony remembers his first encounter with Gertrude, which took place in a rear bedroom on the second floor that contains the original bed that it is believed Gertrude was born in. Anthony was closing everything up for the evening and he came into the room just to check on things and everything was open with the lights on and windows open. He walked up the hallway to close up all the other rooms first and when he returned to the back bedroom, the door was now closed. He thought it odd and opened the door and found the windows and shutters were closed and the lights were turned off. He would soon find that this room often has the doors and blinds opening and closing on their own. On this occasion, he was terrified and bolted out of the house. He didn't come into work the next day either. Gertrude is able to interact with all types of objects according to staff.

There is a Lady in White here and staff believe she is The eldest daughter Elizabeth. She is seen as a full-bodied apparition roaming the halls. Anthony saw her one day when he was preparing for an event. He said, "The guest speaker and I were seated here on the main landing discussing what we were going to do. Something like, I'll say this and you'll say that, I'll introduce you, that sort of thing. I was seated right on the step just like this and she was seated here and while we were talking I noticed there was motion and a bit of a rustle up at the top of the staircase and I was able to look past her right up to where the staircase bends around again and there was a woman standing there leaning on the staircase, on the handrail and looking down. In fact, I felt our eyes had actually connected. She was wearing a period dress. She looked absolutely solid. I could see her face very clearly. It was a beautiful face, almost heart-shaped. It must have been close to a minute and then somebody from downstairs hollered up, 'Anthony we are ready to open the house' and I looked down. Then I looked up the stairs again and the mysterious woman had
completely vanished."

Sturges Paranormal has been granted unprecedented access to the museum for the purpose of an open ended investigation that has lasted 17 years. During the pandemic, they were able to leave equipment going 24/7. Dan Sturges, who heads the team, has conducted over 75 investigations at the house and shares some EVP captured at the museum on his website. (I am not afraid) (Bells) (Servant) (Soul should be saved) (I wish you hadn't told me about that) Anthony said, "The last time that I was truly terrified when something happened in the house was during one of our paranormal investigations with Dan Sturges. I had been taking things pretty much in stride and become quite used to the unexplainable things that seem to happen on an occasional basis here at the Museum but this one was disturbing. We were conducting an investigation and we were here in Mr Treadwell's bedroom. It was night, it was dark and there were about five of us in the room. The usual team and a guest psychic joining us that night and she verbalized that she got the impression that someone wanted the lights turned off because the lights were disturbing someone. She asked, 'Do you want the lights turned off?' and suddenly this door right behind me slammed. I screamed like a little school girl."

Hans Holzer visited the house three times and he wrote about it in his book Travel Guide to Haunted Houses, "Sometimes, people who die in emotional, traumatic ways remain trapped in that world and setting. They're so used to a place, they defend it and refuse to leave. The great love of Gertrude's life was denied, and she closed herself off in that house and didn't want to leave it, even in death." Holzer's fascination with the house prompted the Holzer Files to visit. 

The Merchant's House Museum really is a one-of-a-kind house in Manhattan. A family's love ensured its survival as a time capsule to the future. We get a great glimpse of what life was like here in the 19th century and beyond. Are some of the family's spirits still here? Is the Merchant's House Museum haunted? That is for you to decide!