The Historic Merchant’s House in Downtown Manhattan

The Merchant’s House is the only 19th century home in New York City that has been preserved intact with the family’s original furniture and objects. I have lived in NYC for decades, and I only recently found out about this place! How did that happen?

Well, as soon as I discovered it, I had to visit, and I’m glad I did. Located on East 4th Street in downtown Manhattan, the house is small by today’s standards but was once the prestigious home of a wealthy merchant and his family in the mid-1800s, just before The Gilded Age.

Seabury Tredwell grew up on a farm on Long Island but came to Manhattan at age 18 to seek his fortune … and fortune he found. Tredwell bought Merchant’s House in 1835 for $18,000, a paltry sum today but certainly not paltry at that time. He and his young wife, Eliza, had eight children, and the house also accommodated four live-in servants.

The servants of the day were often teenage Irish immigrants who were on call 24 hours a day for $3 to $4 a month. They did, of course, receive room and board, which factory workers didn’t receive. Society at the time discriminated heavily against Irish immigrants, even though they made the life of wealthy families like the Tredwells possible.

Seabury Tredwell died at age 85 in 1865, just five weeks before the assassination of President Lincoln. Afterwards, his wife and five younger children continued to live in the home. By the time the last surviving member of the family, Gertrude, died in 1933, the family had resided at Merchant’s House for nearly 100 years. Afterwards, Eliza Tredwell’s grand-nephew turned it into a museum in 1936.

The house has three stories and an attic, as well as a lovely small garden in the back. The basement floor, which is a half story below ground and with lower ceilings than the rooms on upper floors, contained the kitchen. This was the warmest part of the house in winter but also the coolest part in summer.

The servants were up at dawn, and there were bells to call them when the family awakened each morning. Ingeniously, each bell had a different sound so that the servants knew exactly who was summoning them.

You might be surprised to hear that the house had some running water when it was originally built. This was an extraordinary luxury, as most people in the city got their water from communal wells on the street. As the city became more heavily populated, that well water became contaminated and caused many diseases among the population.

Wealthy families like the Tredwells were able to purchase water from tradesmen who brought it to the city from springs outside of the city, and an underground cistern fed water to faucets in the kitchen through a combination of wooden and lead pipes. Of course, the house was eventually connected to public water supply lines.

The home was heated by coal fireplaces that had to be replenished twice a day in the winter, and the rooms were lit by candles, oil lamps, and kerosene lamps. When gas mains became available in the 1850s, gas lighting was introduced into the house.

I was amused by a cultural piece of information in the museum’s self-guided tour booklet about something called “ceremonial calling.” The women of the time would call on each other periodically, which was considered a social obligation. The visitor would arrive at the house and leave her calling card containing her name with one of the servants. She would then wait in the front parlor while the servant took the calling card to the lady of the house.

The lady of the house would then meet the visitor in the parlor, and they would have a very formal conversation that lasted no more than 10 minutes. This call would then oblige the lady of the house to visit the caller at her home within about three days. Apparently, women of the time considered this custom to be quite tedious. Remember that no one could phone ahead of time to ask if they could come by or at least warn of their arrival.

The rooms and furnishings are both beautiful and fascinating. I strongly recommend visiting Merchant’s House when you’re in NYC. It’s open Wednesday-Sunday from 1:00-5:00 p.m. for self-guided tours and holds one 75-minute guided tour daily at noon. It’s best to buy tickets for the guided tour in advance.

I opted for the self-guided tour, which was easy because the very detailed booklet explained much more about the family, the house, and the time period than I could possibly include in this article.

Currently, the front facade of the house is hidden because renovations were taking place, but the organization that runs it is in dire need of funds to keep the house from falling apart. There are signs of deterioration in several rooms, especially in the paint and plastic work on the walls and ceilings.

Even though the building enjoys landmark status, a planned new building next door is threatening its survival. The fear is that the construction work will be too much for the fragile historic property, and the museum would have to close for a couple of years in order to preserve its contents, which would, of course, be financially stressful.

Efforts have been made for 13 years now to prevent the construction next door, and there are pleas on the property for financial help. Because of the fight to prevent the construction, renovations to restore the property back to the way it looked in the 1850s has had to cease.

General admission to the museum is $15.50, while the guided tour costs $20.50. Seniors and students are admitted for $10.50, and children under 12 are allowed in for free, as are members of the Merchant’s House Museum. There are numerous membership levels that help to keep the house running. These range from as low as $40 to as high as $2,500. Let’s make sure this important historic site is preserved for the generations to come!