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Encounter the Supernatural In Manhattan’s Most Haunted House

By Sehba Mohammad on October 24, 2014

If you’re looking for something more tangible this Halloween than sexy costumes and scary movies then head to the Candlelight Ghost Tour of “Manhattan’s Most Haunted House,” a tour of the eerie 18th century Merchant’s House Museum (popularly known as Manhattan’s most haunted house). The 50 minute tours happen every 30 minutes starting from 6:30 pm.

An exterior view of Manhattan’s most haunted house

The museum, now a National Historic Landmark, was once owned by a wealthy mercantile family, the Tredwells, who lived there for about a hundred years, eight of them died in the house. The family’s furniture, gas chandeliers, photographs, personal belongings, and clothing, still occupy the house, as do their spirits, according to several recent sightings. Most sightings are of Gertrude Tredwell, who was born in the house’s upstairs bedroom and was the last family member to live in the house.

Gertrude Tredwell

Her ghost was first spotted during the process of turning the house into a museum. One of the restoration workers saw “a small elderly woman in a light-colored dress standing in the doorway,” she then promptly vanished. Since then there have been several additional sightings of Gertrude sometimes as a young girl other times as a wrinkled woman. There have also been multiple reports of otherworldly footsteps, music from a broken piano, mysterious cold spots, and some say the museum’s computers strangely freeze-up when you type “Tredwell.” The occurrences reached a crescendo in 2006 and the Museum mounted an investigation with the help of Historic Paranormal Investigations, a NYC-based group. The investigation is still ongoing and remains inconclusive.

An image from a recent reenactment of the death of Seabury Tredwell, Gertrude’s father, whose ghost has also been sighted at the Merchant’s House Museum.