HGB Ep. 613 - Kreischer Mansion

This Month in History - Hedy Lamarr Born (Written by Jim Featherstone)

In the month of November, on the 9th, in 1914, Hedy Lamarr was born. She played a key role in shaping today's technology. Hedy Lamarr didn't invent WIFI, but she co-invented a key technology - frequency hopping. This laid the foundation for modern wireless communication, including WIFI, Bluetooth and GPS. In 1941, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a method to prevent enemy ships from jamming torpedo signals by having the signal "hop" between different radio frequencies. The U.S. Navy didn't adopt the process at the time, but the concept became crucial decades later in secure and spread-spectrum communications. This technology is used today to spread a signal across a much wider frequency band than is necessary for its information content, making it more resistant to interference and jamming. By using a unique code to spread the signal, it becomes difficult to intercept or detect without knowing the specific code, thus enhancing security and privacy.

Kreischer (Cry sure) Mansion

A little known factory town was home to the Kreischer Mansion, which actually had a twin. There were two exact mirror-image homes that sat next to each in Staten Island, fittingly owned by brothers. Only one of them remains and it changed ownership many times over the years. There were deaths on the property and people took to calling this the murder house.  It very well might be a real life haunted mansion. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Kreischer Mansion. 

Kreischerville had been a small company town on the New York City borough of Staten Island. Its history is one of bustle and then crash and the bustle is understandable because of its proximity to the harbor and there was ample immigrant labor. This was originally an area settled by the Dutch and they called it Charleston. Kreischerville was named for its founder, Balthasar Kreischer, who had come to America from Germany in 1836 after a great fire had obliterated New York City. His specialty was in brickmaking as his grandfather had been a brick manufacturer and he was apprenticed to be a stonecutter in that business. Balthashar opened a brick factory on the Lower East Side of New York City. The brick business was prosperous as builders were seeking elements to help fireproof buildings and bricks were a no brainer. Kreischer decided to relocate the business to Staten Island because rich clay deposits were located there. The entrepreneur decided that it would be best to build a company town to make it easier to attract workers. In 1875, he built tenement houses and in 1890 double houses were added. Most of the houses would be of that variety and four of them remain today. Sidewalks in the town were laid with yellow Kreischer bricks. The town of Kreischerville had everything that laborers needed: a post office, a country store and several churches. The town went back to the Charleston name during World War I because, you know, we were at war with Germans.

Prominent in the company town were the homes of Kreischer and his two sons, Edward and Charles. Balthashar built a mansion on top of a hill near the brick factory in the 1860s. This was a massive Italianate-styled villa that no longer stands today. He also built two identical mansions in 1888 for his sons down from the hill and next to each other. These were in the Victorian Queen-Anne style and interestingly were made from wood. The houses had a prominent corner tower, verandas, decorative railings, gables with jigsaw bargeboards and tall chimneys. The interiors were opulent with chandeliers and the walls were covered in Lincrusta wallpaper, which is a cross between leather and linoleum. There were seven bedrooms and three bathrooms, parlors and a dining room.

Kreischer died the year after his son's mansions were built. A fun fact about Balthashar is that he gave Henry Englehard Steinway $75,000 to help start his piano manufacturing company, Steinway & Sons. And his daughter Louisa married Henry Steinway's son Alfred. The brick factory of all things burned to the ground shortly after that. It was rebuilt, but the family's fortunes had fallen. Now there are some who say that this downfall lead to Edward Kreischer killing himself by shooting himself in the temple near the factory in 1895. But something else might have happened here and this might have been murder. We saw a story that claimed Edward's wife was having an affair with a doctor. And with that doctor's help it is said that she was poisoning Edward, but that wasn't working so they shot him. But he also was said to have had a fight with his brother and then also someone at the factory. But according to the New York Times and the reports at that time, this was a suicide. (Newspaper Bookmark)

The factory shut down in the 1930s. Eventually both Balthasar and Edward's houses burned down and were demolished, so only Charles' mansion is still standing. It was abandoned for a time. A Victorian restaurant was run in the house until 1997. Ohio developer Isaac Yomotovian bought the five-acre estate in 1999 for $1.4 million. He wanted to build a 55-plus community on the property. He restored the house, but was unable to fulfill any other part of his vision. He put the house on the market in 2012, but only got one offer so he held onto it and put it on the market again in 2016. At some point there had been a restaurant in the house, but we couldn't find much on that. There was an auction held in 2021 to sell off the house. Eric Bischoff and Julia Mackie obtained the property in 2024 and have been restoring the house into something that can be an events center and wedding venue. 

The house had run a haunted attraction out of it for many years with the last run being in 2024 and people had rented it for paranormal investigations and various events had been held here. We're not sure if any of that will continue in the future. There are several reasons why hauntings might be going on. Obviously, we have Edward's death. Then two children died on the property, Henry and Alfred. Seances were held in the house to try to communicate with Edward to figure out if he was murdered or committed suicide and it is thought they opened portals, but didn't close them. A legend claims a cook died in the kitchen. And then there was a murder in our modern era. This happened in 2005. There was a former Marine at the house who was working as the caretaker. His name was Joseph Young and everybody called him Joe Black. He got himself mixed up with the mob, specifically the Bonnano crime family. They paid Joe $8,000 to rub out a man named Robert McKelvey. McKelvey was also involved with the mob and he had offended a guy named Gino Galestro and he owed him money. So Joe got three other men together to help him and they got McKelvey to come to the mansion and they stabbed him. McKelvey managed to run for the door and a couple of the guys grabbed him and tried to strangle him. McKelvey got outside where the four men finally managed to drown him in the shallow pool out in the front yard. The body was taken down into the basement and dismembered and burned in the coal-burning furnace. The FBI investigated for a year, but by the time they got to the house, the furnace had been removed. There was enough other evidence though to bring Joe to trial and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2008. In 2009, Galestro was given 20 years for ordering the hit.

When the haunted house attraction was going, a room was dedicated to dolls and they were hung from the ceiling and walls. There could be attachments as people donate dolls to the house. People claim to hear a woman's wailing and it is thought that this is Edward 's wife, Frieda. Children are heard often in the house. The lights have minds of their own. Cold spots are felt and most people just feel uncomfortable in the house. 

Rick Rispoli was a caretaker at the mansion in 2019 when Inside Edition visited. He told reporter Lisa Guerrero that they have heard moans and groans and disembodied footsteps and doors have slammed shut on their own. Rick also shred with Inside Edition that he and his sister were unloading chairs about 12:30 at night and a song came on over the radio, which wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that this was his sister's car and she was holding her keys. The car wasn't running, no keys in the ignition. The direct opposite of stories we hear about cars that stall near haunted locations. He also said that they have caught in pictures, which peaked our interest based on the details. These were a cluster of 4 orbs that moved into five different pictures through five shots. It was like they moved in a circle. We will point out that these big lights were on in the house and the front doors were open , so possibly a reflection into the camera and the taker moving? Pictures have captured what people claim are spirits. Rick has had so many experiences. He claims that a picture once caught seven faces in seven windows. They shut the water off in the winter, so he went down in the basement with his assistant and they were having issues so they decided to get a plumber. Before they left the basement, they heard kids screaming upstairs. They were the only people in the house, but they checked anyway. Then they went to get the plumber and returned four hours later. The same thing happened when they were in the basment, so they quick shut off the values and got out of the house. Another time he was in the house with a buddy and they both watched a black mass come down the stairs and go out the door. The kids like to prank Rick by moving stuff around and they tug on his shirts and pants. When they had the haunted attraction, they also ran a hayride and the one night, one of the drivers came into Rick and said, "You need to stop having that kid in the white shirt that comes out from between the barns running in front of the wagon." When Rick asked how old the kid looked, the driver said, "About 10." And Rick was like, we aren't hiring no 10-year-olds. He had a guide who road on the back of the wagons and she complained about the same thing. A worker got scratched on the back of his leg outside when he was working.

Paranormal Files was there to investigate in 2023. Rick was still there and he told them that they had picked up on Edward, Balthasar and their wives. The kids were apparently punished back in the day by being locked in the closet. When the haunted attraction was being run, they would occasionally put customers in the closets and they would get stuck in the closets. So Rick said they thought it was an issue with the doors and the wood swelling so they shaved off some of the door and the issue continued. There also is an entity that hangs around outside that Rick said they call "The Hairy Man." He's disheveled and so they think he was a homeless guy that might have died on the property. As Rick was giving the investigators a tour of the house, several times there were unexplained noises coming from upstairs. These sounds happened again when the tour was over and the investigators started investigating. They captured childrens voices and even a scream. They used the Night Talker App and they got "My life ended fast" and "I Move Things." The cat balls kept going off. The Rem Pod went off for a really long time. I've never heard one go that long. They were using a Ouija board at the time. This device was right in front of a mirror, so they asked it to come through the mirror and the Spirit Talker said "Bad spirit." This thing only increased in intensity. This was a room where they conducted seances. These guys were legit scared. When they asked if this was a member of the Kreischer family, the Spirit Talker said, "No, it's not." When they asked later who they were speaking to and they got "Henry." They had a motion detector music box in the other room and it kept going off. This place was crazy with activity and that probably is because this is a place that hasn't been investigated often and when they were there in July 2023, nobody had been in the place since November. 

But many of the big names have been here including Sam and Colby and Nick Groff and Katrina brought Paranormal Lockdown in 2016. The new owners are hoping for a rebrand, but with as crazy as the activity is in this place we'll see how that goes. kay_ray_1105 commented on Instagram, "That place is haunted.  You can fix it up all you want, ultimately the paranormal activity will still be there. There’s no way in hell I would ever consider going anywhere near that place, no matter how nice they fix it up. Seriously do your research. you will find what I’m telling you is true."

There are several haunted locations on Staten Island, but the Kreischer Mansion seems to sit all on its own at the furthest tip of the island from where most of the ghostly stuff happens. But we thought it would be fun to venture up about 10 miles to Fort Wadsworth. This is one of the oldest military installations in the nation and sits on 226 acres and is part of the National Park Service. They call it Gateway National Recreation Area. The British had occupied Staten Island from 1776 to 1783 and they were the ones to fortify this particular area of Staten Island in 1779. After the Revolutionary War, the state of New York built the fort to defend the Narrows in the early 1800s. This complex included Fort Wadsworth, Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins. In 1841, New York State gave the War Department permission to occupy part of Fort Wadsworth. Maybe the state would regret this later as the federal government decided to take full control in 1847. Fort Tompkins had started as sandstone and this was upgraded to granite and brick by 1876. Battery Weed was also rebuilt between 1847 and 1862. Fort Wadsworth would get its name in 1865 to honor Brevet Major General James Wadsworth, who was killed during the Civil War. More modernization came in 1907 with electricity. The place got lights and motorized ammunition hoists and telephones. The fort was manned during World War I, but didn't see any action. The fort was equipped with anti-aircraft guns during World War II. The U.S. Army Chaplain School was located at the site from 1974 to 1979 in Fort Tompkins and then the army completely vacated in 1979 and the Navy turned it into the headquarters of Naval Station New York. The Navy gave Fort Wadsworth to the NPS in 1994. 

So even though the place really saw no battle, there are stories of ghosts. Visitors have a feeling of being watched.  Disembodied footsteps are heard. People have claimed to see a  glowing apparition in a Civil War uniform hanging out in an underground tunnel. At first, they think this is a costumed staff member, but as they get closer, they see that the soldier is somewhat transparent. 

Staten Island is often called the forgotten borough of New York City. The Kreischer Mansion sat almost as if forgotten for sure. We hope that it does indeed have a bright future. We're thankful it isn't going to be torn down to make way for condos. Is it haunted? That is for you to decide!