He ain\u2019t afraid of these Gotham ghosts. <\/p>\n
The Merchant\u2019s House Museum<\/a> is so haunted that its staff actually hired its own ghost hunter \u2014 who spilled its bone-chilling secrets to The Post ahead of Halloween.<\/p>\n \u201cManhattan\u2019s Most Haunted House<\/a>,\u201d at 29 East Fourth St. between Bowery and Lafayette, belonged over a century ago to Seabury Tredwell, a wealthy merchant who lived there with his wife and eight children \u2014 and paranormal investigator Dan Sturges<\/a> says the family never left.<\/p>\n The Merchant\u2019s House Museum is considered \u201cManhattan\u2019s Most Haunted House.\u201d Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n Sturges, who has conducted over 100 investigations at the house, which was built in 1832 and purchased by Tredwell in 1895, says he recorded sounds of footsteps, piano playing and even deceased residents speaking.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0catching these strange, anomalous voices that aren\u2019t heard at the time of the recording,\u201d he told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cI got direct answers to questions saying, \u2018Mr. Tredwell, did you know how to play the piano?\u2019\u00a0And we recorded, \u2018Yes. I strike the keys in succession.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd a girl in Mrs. Tredwell\u2019s room asked permission to use a mirror and she asked, \u2018Mrs. Tredwell, do you think I look pretty?\u2019 And we recorded a female voice saying, \u2018Pleasant enough.’\u201d<\/p>\n Museum employees there after hours have also reported inexplicable activity.<\/p>\n Dan Sturges has conducted more than 100 paranormal investigations at the residence, which was inhabited by the Tredwell family from 1835 to 1933. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n \u201cA staff member was working late in the offices on the third floor. Around 10 p.m. she distinctly heard footsteps of several children running about on the floor above and jumping onto the descending staircase. She heard no voices, just the patter of children\u2019s footfalls, at which she decided to call it night,\u201d said the museum\u2019s director of operations, Emily Hill-Wright.<\/p>\n The Tredwells\u2019 eighth child, Gertrude \u2014 the last remaining family member who lived alone in the NoHo abode for 24 years \u2014 kept the house in its original condition, \u201cas Papa would have wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n In 1933, Gertrude died in the house, and \u201caccording to legend, it was [in] the same bed she was born in,\u201d Sturges said.<\/p>\n After she passed, her cousin purchased the residence, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1936 turned it into a museum.<\/p>\n During its renovation, workers reported seeing a ghost, and in 2002, she was seen there again.<\/p>\n A visitor to the Merchant\u2019s House Museum took this photo of a mirror there, with what appears to be a male figure in its reflection. Courtesy of Dan Sturges<\/p>\n \u201cThe same woman in the same brown dress, drinking a cup of tea and staring out the kitchen window, was reported by different people decades apart,\u201d Sturges said.<\/p>\n The nearly 10,000-square-foot 19th-century brick and marble row house, one of the last examples of late-Federal and Greek Revival architecture, has five floors guests can visit, plus an attic and a cellar that are off limits.<\/p>\n There are seven bedrooms, but only two, plus the servants\u2019 quarters, are open to guests.<\/p>\n A museum curator once arranged the Tredwell\u2019s teacups, saucers and a teapot for an exhibition, and when he returned, they were rearranged. AP<\/p>\n It is the only home in the city that is preserved both inside and out, with the furniture, dishes and clothes there all the same ones that the Tredwells used.<\/p>\n Hill-Wright recalled an instance where a curator found some of the family\u2019s belongings \u2014 3,000 of which are on display \u2014 mysteriously moved.<\/p>\n \u201cHe set up a display of Tredwell family teacups, saucers, and a teapot \u2026 Just as he completed his task, he was called to the telephone in the gift shop, down the hall \u2026 Upon his return, a minute or two later, he found all of the china completely rearranged. Yet he had heard nothing, and knew no one else had been in the room during his absence,\u201d said Hill-Wright.<\/p>\n For his investigations, Sturges uses multiple recorders, electromagnetic field detectors and directional microphones\u00a0specific\u00a0to the rooms there \u2014 and all of his findings are sent to digital forensic examiners, photography experts and audio analysts\u00a0for confirmation.<\/p>\n Sturges poses with the fake corpse of Seabury Tredwell, who lived at the East Fourth Street home with his wife and eight children. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n