The Merchant’s House Museum, known as “Manhattan’s Most Haunted House,” has hired its own paranormal investigator, Dan Sturges, who has captured unexplainable recordings inside the historic NoHo building.
According to the New York Post, Sturges has conducted over 100 investigations at the 19th-century brick and marble row house. He has recorded strange voices, footsteps, the sound of piano playing, and what appear to be deceased residents responding to questions.
In one instance, he asked, “Mr. Tredwell, did you know how to play the piano?” and recorded a response: “Yes. I strike the keys in succession.” In another case, a girl in Mrs. Tredwell’s room asked, “Mrs. Tredwell, do you think I look pretty?” and a female voice responded, “Pleasant enough.” Sturges uses multiple recorders, electromagnetic field detectors, and directional microphones, and sends his findings to forensic examiners and audio analysts for confirmation.
The ghost hunter’s recordings are just part of a long history of strange activity inside the museum
Museum staff have also reported unusual experiences. Emily Hill-Wright, the museum’s director of operations, shared a story about a staff member working late on the third floor who heard the sounds of children running on the floor above and jumping onto the staircase around 10:00 PM, despite no children being present.
In another incident, a curator set up a display of Tredwell family teacups, saucers, and a teapot, stepped away briefly to answer a phone call, and returned to find all the china completely rearranged, with no one else in the room. Manhattan continues to make headlines for all kinds of surprising stories, like a Manhattan company’s run-in with Taylor Swift’s legal team after a domain dispute.
The house was built in 1832 and purchased by wealthy merchant Seabury Tredwell, who lived there with his wife and eight children. The family’s eighth child, Gertrude, was the last to live there, staying alone for 24 years and preserving it “as Papa would have wanted.” She died in the house in 1933, reportedly in the same bed she was born in. It became a museum in 1936.
The reported hauntings go back to the building’s renovation into a museum, when workers said they saw a ghost. The same figure was spotted again in 2002. Sturges described it as “the same woman in the same brown dress, drinking a cup of tea and staring out the kitchen window,” reported by different people decades apart.
In 2007, Sturges arranged a séance and brought in psychic medium Richard Schoeller, who was not told the address beforehand. Schoeller provided accurate information about the Irish servants who had lived there, including their first and last names, dates of employment, and the towns they came from.
These details were later verified using census records at the New York Historical Society. For those interested in an upcoming reality show set in Manhattan, the city clearly has no shortage of compelling stories to tell.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot residence is one of the last examples of late-Federal and Greek Revival architecture and the only home in New York City preserved both inside and out. Over 3,000 of the Tredwell family’s original belongings, including furniture, dishes, and clothes, are still on display across five floors, which visitors can explore today.
