Merchant's House Museum Presents Sprited October Events

Each October, the Museum opens its doors for a series of "spirited" events thematically built around its unusual reputation.

Since work first began in 1933 to convert the untouched 1832 rowhouse on East Fourth Street in New York's then-forlorn Bowery District into the jewel of an historic house now called the Merchant's House Museum, stories of unexplainable and downright eerie occurrences have been rampant.

A few years ago, The New York Times christened the Merchant's House "Manhattan's Most Haunted House" and the Museum (or perhaps, its permanent residents) have had no trouble living up to that moniker. Filled with the possessions of the Tredwell Family - the home's occupants of nearly a century - the Museum certainly looks like it could be haunted. And apparently, it IS.

This year's events include five nights of the renowned Candlelight Ghost Tours; a re-enactment of an at-home funeral followed by a funeral procession down The Bowery to The New York City Marble Cemetery; an annual concert of 19th Century art song around the themes of magic and mourning performed by the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society; and readings of selected 19th century gothic and horror literature on Halloween night.

Reservations are required for all events; purchase tickets at www.merchantshouse.org/calendar.

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Event Details

Exhibition - "Truly We Live in a Dying World:" A 19th Century Home in Mourning

Date: Thursday, October 2, through Monday, November 3

Time: Thursday - Monday, 12-5 p.m. (closed Tuesday and Wednesday)

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Including rarely exhibited items of Tredwell family mourning dress and accessories from the collection.
Step back in time to 1865, when family patriarch Seabury Tredwell died at home in his second floor bedroom. Poignant scenes of death and grief recreated in the House will explore mid-19th century mourning customs. Pay your last respects at his deathbed upstairs, or join the mourning in the double parlor, hung with black crepe curtains and set for a mid-19th century funeral. Also on exhibit, Tredwell family photographs and mourning attire and accessories, including jewelry made of hair and jet, a black net veil, several bodices and shawls, and two 1870s mourning gowns. Included with regular admission; reservations not required.

'Spirited' Walking Tour of 19th Century Noho: Glamour, Greed - & Ghosts

Date: Sunday, October 12

Time: 12:30 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: The neighborhood surrounding the Merchant's House was home to some of the most famous, and infamous, names in New York history. From the literary to the illegal, New York society was played out in the elegant parlors and dark alleys of the fashionable Bond Street neighborhood. On this tour, we'll see the haunts of renowned figures such as Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving; the spirits of long ago firemen and stable boys; the high and low life characters of the Bowery - as well as a tale or two of haunted happenings at the Merchant's House. And we'll visit the site of the most grisly of all 19th-century New York murders and hear tales of more contemporary ghosts that just won't leave the neighborhood.
$10, $5 Seniors & Students, Members Free. No reservations.

Chant Macabre: Songs from the Crypt

Date: Friday, October 17

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins haunt the music of the 19th century. Come be spooked by these harrowing tales as the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society bewitches your imagination and sings shivers down your spine, echoing sumptuous, rarely-performed songs in an authentic Victorian parlor. Singers Roberta Alessandra, Anthony Bellov, Jane Elizabeth Rady, and Dayle Vander Sande. Music by Schubert, Liszt, Debussy, Loewe, Mussorgsky, and others. $25, $15 MHM Members.

Illustrated Lecture: Ghost Hunting 101

Date: Tuesday, October 21

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Join well-known paranormal investigator Dan Sturges to learn about the different methodologies and technologies of paranormal investigations. He will discuss the "do's and don'ts" and the disconnect between what really happens in the field - and what appears on sensationalized TV programs. Sturges draws on years of experience as a field investigator including his ongoing, seven-year investigation of the Merchant's House Museum. He will share examples of evidence he's collected over the years, as well as expose fake hauntings. For more information on Dan Sturges, visit www.sturgesparanormal.com. $15, $10 MHM Members.

Candlelight Ghost Tours for Children, 8 to 12

Date: Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Do you believe in ghosts? Visit "Manhattan's most haunted house" (The New York Times) for a special Candlelight Ghost Tour (40 minutes) designed especially for young investigators, aged 8 to 12. Hear tales of strange occurrences by the people who experienced them. See photographs of things that can't be explained. Listen to voices recorded in empty rooms. Decide for yourself!

1 adult & 1 child $40
1 adult & 2 children $55
1 adult & 3 children $70
Additional adults $20 each

Candlelight Ghost Tours of 'Manhattan's Most Haunted House'

Dates: Friday & Saturday, October 24 & 25;

Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, October 28, 29 & 30

Time: 50-minute tours begin every half hour from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Doors slam, floorboards creak, voices call into the night. Recent restoration work 'stirred things up' again, so we have lots of new reports of especially strange experiences to share this year. We invite you to venture into the shadows of history to see the house where eight family members died and hear the newest tales of inexplicable occurrences from the people who actually experienced them. And the creepiest of past ones.

Friday, October 24 & Saturday, October 25
Super Spooky Tour (includes 4th Floor Servants' Quarters): 6:30, 8 & 9:30 p.m. $35
Standard Spooky Tour: 7, 7:30, 8:30, 9 p.m. $25
MHM Members $15 all times.

Tuesday, October 28; Wednesday, October 29; Thursday, October 30
Super Spooky Tour (includes 4th Floor Servants' Quarters): 6:30, 8 & 9:30 p.m. $40
Standard Spooky Tour: 7, 7:30, 8:30, 9 p.m. $30
MHM Members $15 all times.

From Parlor to Grave: 1865 Funeral Reenactment and Graveyard Procession

Date: Sunday, October 26

Time: 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: In the 19th century, death and funerals took place at home. Join us in the Museum's double parlors as we recreate the 1865 funeral service of Seabury Tredwell and discuss the funerary customs of 19th century New York City. After the service, mourners follow the coffin to nearby New York City Marble Cemetery - rarely open to the public - for the graveside service and cemetery talk. 19th century mourning attire is encouraged.

VIP tickets include front-row seating, black crape armbands, and the opportunity to lead the graveyard procession as a pallbearer.

$40, $55 VIP Seats, $25 MHM Members

Tales of the Supernatural: Horror on Hallowe'en

Date: Thursday, October 31

Time: Performances at 7 & 8:30 p.m.

Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)

Description: Dramatic readings from 19th century Gothic literature and true ghost stories as reported by visitors of the Merchant's House through the years told in the Museum's parlors set for a Victorian funeral. $25, $15 MHM Members.

About the Merchant's House Museum
The Merchant's House Museum is New York City's only family home preserved intact - inside and out - from the mid-19th century. Home to a prosperous merchant-class family and their staff of four Irish servants for almost 100 years, it is complete with the family's original furnishings and personal possessions, offering a rare and intimate glimpse of domestic life from 1835-1865.

"Not so much a museum as a raw slice of history" AVENUE Magazine

On the web: www.merchantshouse.org

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Emily Wright
Communications and Programs Manager
Merchant's House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, NYC 10003
212-777-1089 x 303
Follow Our Work: Facebook / Twitter / www.merchantshouse.org

About the Merchant's House.
Built in 1832, the Merchant's House was home
to a prosperous merchant family and their Irish servants for almost 100 years.
Complete with the family's original furnishings and personal possessions,
the house offers a rare and intimate glimpse of domestic life in New York
City from 1835-1865.

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