For years, a 19th-century townhouse in New York City has attracted thousands of visitors dying for a taste of “old New York.” Now, a recent discovery inside the mansion has been traced all the way back to the Underground Railroad right on time for Black History Month.
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The Merchant’s House became the first landmarked building in Manhattan when it opened its doors in 1936 as a public museum. Since then, folks have traveled across the world to visit the mansion which appears to be frozen in time. The bedrooms are ordained with antique furniture which has survived decades, and the floors creak as if the spirits of past homeowners are still inside.
But while the Merchant House has become famous for its grandiose nature, the historic truth lying beneath the ground floor offers a more humbling representation of American history.
According to Spectrum News, inside the bottom of an unsuspecting bedroom drawer is a secret “safe house” which was used for enslaved Africans escaping chattel slavery in the South. The discovery itself is years old, but now historians have confirmed the truth behind the hidden passage.
“We knew it was here, but didn’t really know what we were looking at,” Camille Czerkowicz, the curator for the Merchant’s House Museum, told the outlet.
To access the safe house, you have to remove the heavy drawer to see a opening which was cut through the floorboards. If you look further, you’d see the space space leads to an even tighter part of the hideout– about 2-by-2-feet, according to reports. From there, a ladder going to the ground floor was more than likely designed for fleeing Black Americans in the 1800s.
It’s unclear exactly when the safe house was built or which of the previous home owners– if any– knew the safe house was even there. Patrick Ciccone, an architectural historian, credited the original builder of the home, Joseph Brewster who “was the builder of the house, and he was able to make these choices and design it,” Ciccone told Spectrum.
Brewster was a known social reformer, which was not a popular professional in NYC at the time. “Being an abolitionist was incredibly rare among white New Yorkers, especially wealthy white New Yorkers,” Ciccone said.
Eventually, he sold the East Fourth Street house to the Treadwell family in 1835– years before the Civil War began, according to the Merchant Museum website. With the war’s end in 1865, chattel slavery in America was abolished. Still, the Merchant safe house is a reminder of the dark truth which shaped Black history.
“Many New Yorkers forget that we were part of the abolitionist movement, but this is physical evidence of what happened in the South [during] the Civil War, and what’s happening today,” Manhattan Councilman Christopher Marte said to Spectrum.
Michael Hiller, a preservation attorney and professor at Pratt Institute, stressed the importance of preserving this part of the Merchant House’s legacy. “I’ve been practicing historical preservation law for 30 years, and this is a generational find,” he said. “This is the most significant find in historic preservation in my career, and it’s very important that we preserve this.”
Now, the Merchant safe house is officially cemented as a historic marker and much more than just a relic of wealthy New York City living. The museum’s legacy has been entangled in the complex struggle for Black freedom in the country, which is especially fitting for the 100th anniversary of Black History month.
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