Songs from the Crypt, Ghost Tours & More Bring 'Spirited' October to Merchant's House
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 25, 2015
Each October, the Merchant's House 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.
October 2015 Event Details
Exhibition - "Truly We Live in a Dying World:" A 19th Century Home in Mourning
Date: Thursday, October 8, through Monday, November 2
Time: Thursday, 12-8 p.m., Friday - 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.
"Of All Nights in the Year:" The Secret and the Sacred in a 19th Century Hallowe'en
Illustrated Lecture
Date: Tuesday, October 12
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)
Description: What would a proper middle class family have done to celebrate Hallowe'en in 19th century New York? How would their children have spent All Hallow's Eve? And what does a 26-year old librarian have to do with it all?
Drawing on an astonishing and long-forgotten work of scholarship by Ruth Edna Kelley, The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), this illustrated lecture will show how the cards and costumes, carvings and capering we often associate with Hallowe'en customs prevalent in 19th century America betray a primeval urge to indulge our wild, albeit hidden, natures.
Presented by ghost tour guide, horror writer, and Hallowe'en enthusiast Andrea Janes, this lively and fascinating look at our most primal celebrations reminds us why Hallowe'en is among the most beloved and bewitching "of all nights in the year!"
$10, $5 MHM Members.
Chant Macabre: Songs from the Crypt
Date: Friday, October 16
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)
Description: Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins haunt the lyrics 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 period parlor. Singers Anthony Bellov, Amy Gluck, Jane Elizabeth Rady, and Dayle Vander Sande. Music by Schubert, Liszt, Debussy, Duparc, Loewe, Mussorgsky, and others. 75 minutes. $25, $15 MHM Members.
Candlelight Ghost Tours of 'Manhattan's Most Haunted House'
Dates: Friday & Saturday, October 23 & 24;
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, 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 23 & Saturday, October 24
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.
Wednesday, October 28; Thursday, October 29; Friday, 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 25
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: Saturday, October 31
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street (btwn Lafayette & Bowery)
Description: Dramatic readings from 19th century Gothic literature and true aghost 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.
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 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.
For more information, visit www.merchantshouse.org, or follow Merchant's House on Facebook: www.facebook.com/merchantshouse, Twitter: @merchantshouse and Instagram: www.instagram.com/merchantshouse.
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