The house at 29 East 4th Street was home to the family Treadwell and their servants for almost 100 years. Now, 75 years later since I died the last representative of a wealthy merchant family, the house is almost unchanged. It is a carefully guarded a time capsule called the Merchant’s House Museum, which shows visitors how life looked in the distant XIX century.
In 1835 Sibari Treadwell, his wife Eliza and their six children moved to a rich area on bond street in Manhattan. The family lived there until 1933, when Gertrude Treadwell, youngest daughter of Treadwell, died in the house at the age of 93 years.
source: flickr/cc/Eden, Janine and Jim
In 1936 the house was opened to the public, becoming a Museum, perfectly preserved, the interior design and architectural features of the nineteenth century. The Museum contains a large number of artifacts ranging from decorative items and clothing of the nineteenth century to the more personal, everyday items such as sheets, chamber pots and other stuff.
source: flickr/cc/Eden, Janine and Jim
However, the Museum attracts not only lovers of history. Saying the house was chosen by the Ghost, which was to be visitors to the building already in the 1930-ies. For decades, the Museum often has unexplained phenomena, including fluctuations of temperature, strange smells, the sound of strange voices, sounds of parties and piano. Thanks to this old mansion in Brooklyn has earned the fame of the haunted house.
Most often, visitors and employees of the Museum is a woman in a brown dressmoving around the house. Times your lady even communicates with the visitors of the Museum. Experts of the paranormal believe that this «fun» the Ghost of Gertrude Treadwell.
source: merchantshouse
Gertrude Treadwell has lived his entire life in a house on East 4th Street. She never married, which was extremely unusual for wealthy women in the nineteenth century. At the time of death it almost eked out a miserable existence as her legacy of $10,000 was over before she died. One of the options for such a vital way the Museum staff called unhappy love.
Around the age of 25 years, Gertrude had a affair with a man named Louis Walton, who was a Catholic and a medical student. Gertrude’s family forbade her to marry him because of his religious faith and, perhaps, his profession (Treadwell were Protestants). Because there is no evidence of this information, to know more details about her personal life, we, alas, can not.
source: merchantshouse
The first supernatural encounter with Gertrude happened in 1933, when the boys, who lives next door, said he saw the front door opened, and the Ghost began to chase them. In addition, tourists once met her on the threshold. Woman dressed in vintage clothes, informed them that the Museum is closed. That’s just the Museum was opened, and the Museum staff never dressed in costumes of the XIX century.
source: flickr/cc/ Allison Meier
The Museum staff believe that the Ghost dwelt in the house because everything was almost the same as it was 200 years ago. Perhaps the Treadwell family and their servants still remain in the mansion, as they prefer familiar surroundings and their old things, even the furniture is in its proper place.
source: flickr/cc/Eden, Janine and Jim
If you are attracted to such urban legends, Merchant’s House Museum is open Thursday through Monday. 14:00 guided tours with guides, but you can begin to explore the mansion on their own. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to see him sociable, but not quite alive, mistress.
