Category: Dedicated to Warren Watrel

Merchant’s House Museum 29 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003

Merchant’s House Museum 29 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003

Merchant’s House Museum

29 East 4th Street

New York, NY 10003

(212) 777-1089

Home

Open: Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm/Monday-Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Admission: Adults $15.00/Seniors (over 65) and Students $10.00/Members are free/ Special Guided tours are $20.00

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d285699-Reviews-Merchant_s_House_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html

The Merchant House at 29 East 4th Street in NoHo

The Historic Plaque

The house is part of the NYCParks system

(from the museum’s pamphlet):

The Merchant House Museum, the former home to four generations of the Treadwell family, was built in 1832 and is designed in the late Federal style of brick and marble. When the house was built, elegant Greek Revival style rowhouses of red brick and white marble flanked the tree lined streets of this fashionable residential enclave, known then as the Bond Street Area.

The house was the home of wealthy merchant, Seabury Tredwell, his family and their four servants. Over the next 98 years, the family lived there and saw the neighborhood and the city grow, change and prosper. In 1936, after the death of the last living relative, the house opened as a museum, complete with Tredwell family’s original furnishings and personal possessions.

At the Midcentury, cast iron made its first appearance and commercial buildings and factories came to dominate the area. By the century’s end, it would be a commercial district with the Tredwell’s being the last holdouts of the area. The house was saved by the last relative’s grand nephew who bought the home to preserve it as a museum.

The home is now part of the NoHo Historic District that includes about 160 buildings, 11 of which are distinguished as individual NYC landmarks

The Entrance Hallway where you would be greeted when you enter the house

The Merchant House Kitchen ready for dinner to be prepared

the Dining Room was set for the Dutch New Year gathering

The Christmas holidays were not a big tradition in the early 1830’s when the house was built. The Dutch tradition of visiting on New Year’s Day and making calls to your friends was what many fashionable families would do to socialize with their neighbors. Tea, Coffee and punch would be served along with cakes, sweets and savories. These calls would only last about ten to fifteen minutes before you would move onto the next house. This tradition continued until Victorian times when homes were spread further apart and the family Christmas celebrations with gift giving and a Christmas tree came into fashion due to Queen Victoria and the spread of English and German traditions.

The punchbowl ready for guests on New Year’s Day

Refreshments ready for the New Year’s Day gathering

The broken pieces of the china collection of the Treadwell family. There is not a full collection of china that the family had to entertain with for formal affairs. They also did not have any china or silver of the family’s. I think that this might have been passed down to the heirs.

The Parlor of the Merchant House Museum

The piano in the Parlor of the home

The fireplace in the Parlor

The Parlor is where the family would gather after meals for entertainment and to converse with guests. This would be the main part of the house for socializing as the formal dining room and living rooms would be used for more formal affairs.

The Living Room in the Merchant House

The stairs are rather narrow and steep when you are heading upstairs to the bedrooms so you have to hold on to the rails. The bedrooms are normal size by today’s standards but back then they were pretty big plus people had their own rooms. They were nicely furnished with family heirlooms and antiques.

Mr. Treadwell’s bedroom

The portrait of Mr. Treadwell in his bedroom

Mrs. Treadwell’s bedroom

In Victorian times, the wealthy would have separate bedrooms for the husband and wife. Bedrooms would not just be a place to sleep but they were also a place of business where the family members would do their paperwork, write correspondence and arrange social events. Also, in the case of birthing, the child would be in the bedroom with their mother.

The “Valentine’s Day Card” exhibition “19th Century Valentines: Confections of Affection” on the second floor is part of the house’s extensive collection. ‘Delicate and lacy, these expressions of love celebrate the whimsy and romance of the Golden Age of Valentines’ (from the pamphlet).

The Children’s bedrooms on the third floor were closed off and used as offices for the staff so I made my way up to the Servant’s Quarters on the top floor. These people really got their exercise climbing those stairs up and down every day. The stairs seemed to get more narrow as you headed higher and God forbid there ever be a fire. You would be trapped up there with no way out.

The Servants Room on the fourth floor

The Servants Room on the fourth floor was pretty spare

Looking for the paranormal

Looking for a ghost on the fourth floor

During October, the museum hosts “Gaslight Ghost Tours”, where you tour the home by candlelight. There have been strange noises in the house ever since Gertrude Tredwell passed in 1934. She had been born in the house in 1840 and lived here until she was 93. She had never married and now it is said that her spirit is still part of the home (museum pamphlet).

After viewing the Servants Quarters and not finding any ghosts, I headed back downstairs to the main hallway leading into the house. There I saw the timeline of the family and all the family members that had lived in the house. It seemed that the last living relative, Gertrude, died in the house in 1934 and her grand-nephew bought the house and all its debts at the height of the Depression to preserve the home as a museum. Talk about insight! The nephew knew how important this home would be one day.

The Treadwell family tree in the hallway downstairs

The last part of the tour was the gardens in the back of the home. It was not a formal yard but a well landscaped walled in garden with a small fountain in the back of the gardens. The flowers were just starting to come up and there were crocuses and daffodils One of the curators was the Master Gardener for the property and did a nice job landscaping the property.

The back of the Merchant House Museum in the late Winter in the Gardens

The Gardens of the Treadwell house in the late Winter

The fountain at the gardens was off but now means to come back in the late Spring

There is a more formal tour a couple of times a day of the home but that is by reservation only and there is a separate fee. The holidays offer more themed tours on Halloween and Christmas. The Candlelight tour of the hour for Halloween is really intriguing.

The Merchant House Museum at night before Halloween

I recently went on the Haunted House tour at the Merchants House for Halloween in 2023 and that was interesting. We walked the first two floors of the house in the dark by candlelight hearing stories about the family.

Costumed characters greeted us in every room but none of us saw a ghost. Still the house had a creepy feeling to it as we walked room by room discussing the lives and deaths of the Treadwell family. We started off in the Parlor on the first floor with displays of seances and ghost pictures dotting the displays.

The display of seances and ghost pictures.

It can be a bit spooky walking through a house by flashlight, but the docents made the conversation interesting and fun. We got to hear about all the haunted tales of the house. A highly suggestive tour around Halloween.

The Parlor at night on the Candlelight tour of the house on Halloween.

The home is very engaging at Christmas time as well as you are welcomed into the Treadwell Home for the Christmas holidays with their annual Christmas Eve Reception and preparations for Christmas lunch. The house was decked out in garland and bows with several Christmas trees in the room. The house was very festive for the holidays and you were welcomed into the world of 19th century New York City at the holidays.

The Merchant House at the Christmas Holidays.

The outside of the house decked out for the holidays.

You are welcomed to the home at Christmas time.

We started our tour in the gardens which had gone dormant for the season but still you could see the greens in the bushes and the pine trees. It had been a warm morning in the low 50’s with a treat of rain but later that afternoon. For now, it had just been gloomy. We had a nice conversation about the house and its history even though we could barely hear the tour guide as he talked so softly.

We next toured the kitchen where the cooks were busy cooking and baking for the Christmas holidays. The 19th Century was all about manners, traditions mostly Dutch and entertaining. The Treadwell’s were people who both entertained the neighbors and their family as well. So there would be teas, receptions, open houses and then the formal Christmas Eve festivities and then Christmas lunch after church service the next day.

The holiday meal being cooked in the downstairs kitchen.

Christmas dinner with the Treadwell’s must have been special.

We moved next to the upstairs parlor that was set for receiving guests from the neighborhood. The Treadwell’s like most families at that time received guests for New Year’s Day punch and refreshments as the men of the neighborhood made their social calls during the holiday season. This tradition stopped around the time of the Civil War when families during the Industrial Revolution acquired money and people did not want to ‘entertain just anyone’.

The Parlor by the front door ready to received guests for the holiday season.

The Parlor on the first floor receiving guests for New Year’s Day.

The mantle was beautifully decorated for the holidays.

We next toured the formal Dining Room and Living Room on the second level where the family entertained relatives and friends for the holidays. It must have been some celebration as the Dutch traditions disappeared and the Victorian rules and elaborate traditions started some still practiced today. Now we call it the “Norman Rockwell” and “Martha Stewart” standards.

The formal Living Room with the Table Tree decorated for the holidays. The Table Tree was the precursor for the modern Christmas tree.

The tree is the focal part of the room.

The fireplace was decked out for the holidays as well.

The Dining Room was set for the Christmas Eve Open House and in preparation for receiving guests in the formal room. The finest silver, china and crystal would have been used to show off the family position in the neighborhood and was meant to impress.

The Dining Room was set for receiving guests for the Open House.

The Dining Room set for a feast.

The family would receive guests all day, replenishing foods so that there was plenty for everyone who visited. Women would be busy all day entertaining neighborhood men who would be calling all day long.

The bannisters were beautifully decorated with garland.

During the Victorian Age gift giving during the holidays became very important.

Christmas presents of the Victorian Age.

Gifts of the Victorian Age.

We then toured the upstairs bedrooms and saw how they decorated. The rooms were nicely decorated for Christmas. I have never seen rooms decorated like this for the holidays.

Mrs. Treadwell’s bedroom

Mrs. Treadwell’s Bedroom

Mr. Treadwell’s bedroom

Mr. Treadwell’s portrait in the bedroom standing guard.

It was an interesting look at both Edwardian and Victorian times in New York City.

The New Year video on celebrations on the “New Year’s Day Visiting” day

During the Summer months, the Merchant House Museum is hosting a series of “Music in the Garden” concerts. The first one I attended was in June 2024 with Flutist Cheryl Pyle. What a nice relaxing evening in the gardens that were all in bloom.

The gardens were in full bloom that June evening

Flutist Cheryl Pyle performing in the gardens that evening

https://cherylpyle.bandcamp.com/

The Concert that evening for everyone to enjoy too!

The gardens are this hidden gem in the neighborhood. The volunteers have done such a beautiful job taking care of this marvelous historic site.

The gardens looking at the back of the house with the wine and snacks and information table

The gardens closer to the back entrance of the house

The left side of the back garden

The right side of the gardens

The entrance to the gardens from the park next door

The fountain staring back at us in the gardens

This little bird even joined us in the garden for the concert and stayed and listened contently

The museum is currently having a fight to keep construction away from the home. The ten-year battle to keep a hotel from being built has been a problem for the museum. The foundation and structure of the home are in danger due to the fragile state of the building. The Landmark Preservation Commission of New York is researching and looking over the proposal.

The museum now has to defend itself from building next door

The museum is a perfect way to see how residents of a Upper Middle Class family lived in Pre-Victorian times and show the last vestiges of the neighborhood when it was a fashionable section of the City.

The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

(845) 876-4000

https://centurymuseum.wixsite.com/home

Dutchess Fair Features

Open: When the fairgrounds are open Spring, Summer and Fall for events

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Century Museum Village inside the Dutchess County Fairgrounds

When the Dutchess County Fairgrounds are open for the season for big events in the Spring, Summer and Fall, the fairgrounds open their historical museums that are located on the property. These include the School House Museum and the Train Station Museum and the when the volunteers are there the Dutchess County Volunteer Firemen’s Museum. The main museum is the Century Museum Village, a look at rural life in Dutchess County at the turn of the last century.

The Schoolhouse Museum in the Century Museum Village

The Train Station Museum at the Century Museum Village

The Century Museum Village gives an interesting look of the changes in life in rural communities all over the United States until the start of WWII. Farming communities had their own way of life, their own clubs and organizations and traditions that were different from City residents. Life on the farm was productive but hard work. As time rolled on, modern conveniences found their way to these communities but as we see by all the machinery, there was still a lot of work to done.

As you progress through the different displays and dioramas, you can see how life improved over time. Progress swept through these communities between WWI and WWII and with the spread of the second industrial revolution after WWII and the change of the consumer market. The advent of the modern highways, the newly built suburbs and movement out of the cities changed these regions even more.

The entrance of the museum and the various dioramas

The museum is lined with different displays of life in the rural community and the advancements made in these communities between about 1880-1930.

The Advancement in farming practices and equipment

The Milk Man buggy

Ice block industry for refrigeration

The household for the farmhouse wife started to become easier with new machinery to help around the house. Modern ways of washing clothes, cooking food and cleaning the house started to make life a bit easier in the household. This left time for a social life and to tend to other things around the house.

The Modern Conveniences of the home

The modern household items to make life easier from 1870-1929

The modern kitchen before electricity came out to the country was still run by coal and wood. Modern electricity would not start until after WWI and even then was not available to everyone. Cooking and washing had gotten easier but still required some work on a everyday basis.

The Kitchen in the Country

The home decor had changed after the Civil War to WWI with the changes in mass production and industrialization. Furniture, rugs, lamps and pictures had become available in all makes and sizes for sale both through catalogs and General stores or maybe a trip to the City to a Department store. People were able to furnish their homes nicer due to mass production and changes in quality of home furnishings.

The Rural Bedroom

Bedrooms have not changed much since then

The idea of the Parlor is equivalent to our modern Living Room. It is usually the room that all socializing is done in, where the family’s best furniture and knick-knacks were placed. It was the nicest room in the house.

The Rural Parlor

The finest home furnishes and the pride of the home was displayed in the parlor.

Both inside and outside the home there would be changes in the way people lived over a fifty year period. There would be changes in plumbing, carpentry and printing. Modernization would change the way people did their jobs and the way they interacted with their customers.

Modern Machinery

A better way to chop wood

Modern pump processes

Shopping was beginning to change after the Civil War as well. The days of people making everything at home was not longer necessary as more and more consumer items became available. Clothing, dishes, toys and hardware could be bought at the General store along with prepared and bakery items. It made life for the rural housewife easier.

The General Store

Prepared items in the General Store

The bakery items and things for sale at the General Store

Quilting has always been a social affair with women meeting and gossiping while working on projects on their own or one big project for the home.

Women working together making quilts and sewn items for the home.

Crocheting for the home

Use of Looms for clothing and rugs

Modern printing took a turn as more modern machines made it easier to produce printing items for playbills, newspapers and magazines. The end of the WWI our modern magazines were being created. The way trades were changing more modern equipment was being used in every industry.

The Printing Press as things start to automat

The Clock Maker

Wood Harvesting

Transportation continued to improve as we moved from the horse and buggy to the modern carriage to the automobile. Improvements continued when mass production started with the Model T Ford and just kept improving. Still even today we like the idea of horse drawn carriages and sleigh rides as a traditional part of our past that we like to maintain especially during the holidays.

Horse Drawn carriages and Model T’s

The Modern modes of transportation

The Outhouse

The School House Museum:

The Modern School has not changed much since its rural past. I just think you can’t hit a student with a ruler anymore and I could not see a student with a Dunce cap in today’s politically correct world. The blackboard has not gone out of style as well as a teacher teaching the next generation.

The One Room School House Museum

The school room set up still remains the same to a certain point.

The Teacher still leads the class

I don’t think would happen to the modern student

The One Room School House set up.

The Schoolhouse Museum

As the museum shows us, somethings have changed and some things remain the same. At some point, we did things right.

The Train Museum

The Pleasant Valley Train Museum at the fairgrounds is a simulated train station that was moved here from the old site. Inside it has been renovated to reflex train travel at the turn of the last century with artifacts from the time period from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. You get to see what life was like for the station manager and passengers at that time.

The Pleasantville Train Museum at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds

The hand cart at the turn of the last century.

The inside of the train station.

The train manager’s office at the Train Museum.

The Luggage Room at the Train Museum.

Artifacts at the Train Museum.

Artifacts from the train lines at the Train Museum

Art & Design Gallery at FIT 227 West 27th Street New York City, NY 10001

Art & Design Gallery at FIT 227 West 27th Street New York City, NY 10001

Art & Design Gallery at FIT

227 West 27th Street

New York City, NY 10001

(212) 217-4683/4570

https://www.fitnyc.edu/life-at-fit/campus/gallery/index.php

https://www.fitnyc.edu/academics/academic-divisions/art-and-design/index.php

Open: Sunday-Saturday 9:00am-5:00pm

Admission: Free Donations Accepted

My review on TripAdvisor:

The entrance to the Art & Design Gallery at FIT at 227 West 27th Street

The exhibition space showcases the work of students, faculty, and distinguished alumni, as well as invited guest artists. This new gallery space is located at the entrance of the Pomerantz main building and the back room exhibition space. This features smallers theme shows and showcases the talents of the FIT professors, professionals and Alumni. The shows are constantly rotating offering a fresh approach to contemporary art.

The Current Exhibition:

Creative Industry: 
The Alumni Journey
Lobby and Gallery

Diverse in medium, this exhibition spotlights the career trajectories of several illustrious FIT alumni, highlighting their innovations and interesting journeys through the creative industries. Co-curated by Troy Richards, dean for the School of Art and Design, and Alumni Relations’ Kseniya Baranova, the work on display features photography, fashion, video, weaving, wallpaper, graphic design, and painting.

“Unconventional Minds at Work: 15 Years of HUE, The FIT Alumni Magazine

The showcased art designs

Artwork “Matter 2008” by artist Susanne Tick

The sign of artist Susanne Tick’s work

Artwork from “Unconventional Minds at Work”

Artwork from “Unconventional Minds at Work”

Artwork from “Unconventional Minds at Work”

Resurgence: 
The Ingenuity of Artisan Work and 
Hand-crafted Objects
Lobby and Gallery

‘Resurgence’ showcases the ingenuity of artisan work and hand-crafted objects from textiles, jewelry, and decorative accessories. Contributors to this show include FIT alumni, faculty, and students, as well as finalists from the 2022 Global Eco Artisan Awards, a recognition given by the AGAATI Foundation.

Artwork of “Resurgence”

The Gallery at FIT during one of the current exhibitions

The latest exhibition is on the A. Beller & Company clothing line. The designs on display are from 1900-1930 and many of the designs are from the ‘flapper’ era.

The A. Beller & Company exhibition

The A. Beller & Company designs.

The Bio on the manufacturer

The A. Beller & Company designs from 1910-1930.

The A. Beller & Company designs from 1910-1930.

The A. Beller & Company designs from 1910-1930.

The A. Beller & Company designs from 1910-1930.

The museum also did a piece on how Generation Z is reworking vintage clothing designs and reworking them into modern clothing.

The Generation Z gallery of designs.

The write up on reworking of vintage clothing.

Some of the clothing designs.

The new exhibition in September 2023 was “The Unwearable Art” exhibition:

With the tag line “A fashion line no one would dare wear.”

The fashions were very unusual to say the least but unique in every way.

The entrance to the gallery.

“Today-I’m Wearing Uncertainty”

the “Today-I’m Wearing Uncertainty” design sign.

“Today-I’m Wearing Flare Intensity”

The “Today-I’m Wearing Flare Intensity” sign.

“Today-I’m Wearing Something Life Threatening.”

The sign “Today-I’m Wearing Something Life Threatening”

“Today-I’m Wearing Physical Pain”

The sign for “Today-I’m Wearing Physical Pain”

The “Wearing Uncertainty” exhibition offers a different look at fashion, and it’s influences on costumes.

The new “Squishables” exhibition at the Gallery at FIT focuses on therapeutic stuffed animals with themes that the students created as teams. Each one has several colorful soft animals and figures with it. It is a colorful and whimsical display. The exhibition shows how plush toys become an essential tool in coping with anxiety, stress, grief and isolation a person might feel at a time of their lives. This exhibition opened in May of 2024.

The sign on the new exhibition “Squishable”.

The “Unicorn Cafe” display.

The “Under the Sea” display.

The “Graveyard” Halloween display.

The “Alchemy Lab” display.

The “Farm” display.

The “Squishables” Gallery exhibition.

The new exhibition “Squishables” is based on a therapeutic stuffed animal that is created by the students.

The “Denim Devine” exhibition is the Senior Project of the graduates.

The “Denim Devine” exhibition in 2024. This exhibition was created by graduating students to design a wardrobe that was made of entirely of denim. These are their original designs and creations.

The “Denim Devine” entrance.

The winners of the “Denim Devine” exhibition.

The “Denim Devine” display.

The back gallery of “Denim Devine”.

I loved this Disney inspired dress in the exhibition.

One of my favorite dresses from the exhibition.

Another very original design in the exhibition.

Another original design that I liked in the exhibition.

The picture boards for the exhibition and other exhibitions.

The Gallery is free and open to the public.

The Museum of Fine Arts & Popular Culture 507 Washington Street Unit 104 Cape May, NJ 08204

The Museum of Fine Arts & Popular Culture 507 Washington Street Unit 104 Cape May, NJ 08204

The Museum of Fine Arts & Popular Culture

507 Washington Street Unit 104

Cape May, NJ 08204

(609) 334-8592

https://museum-of-fine-arts-popular-culture.business.site/

https://www.capemay.com/play/category/museums-and-galleries/

Open: Sunday-Tuesday 10:00am-4:00pm/Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46341-d23745752-Reviews-Museum_Of_Fine_Arts_Popular_Culture-Cape_May_Cape_May_County_New_Jersey.html

The Museum of the Fine Arts & Pop Culture at 507 Washington Street Unit 104

The Museum of Fine Arts & Pop Culture

The Museum features unusual takes on traditional art and shows it from a Surrealist viewpoint. The owner of the museum says that he wants the museum to engage the visitor. The works makes you think about what the artist is trying to say and how to interpret their work. The art is very unusual.

The entrance to the museum and posters in the windows.

The entrance of the museum and the posters that line the windows.

The sign that welcomes you to the museum.

What makes the museum interesting is that all the art is made by the collective that the museum is part of and the works are all original interpretations of what the artist feels and what they are trying to portray.

Some pieces are interpretations on famous artworks and others are original ideas and thought of what the artist is trying to interpret. I thought some the works strange until I got some idea of what it was all about. Some of the work just stands on its own. You really have to look each work a second time.

The Gallery of the Museum of Fine Art & Popular Culture.

The museum is in one gallery and looks more like an Art Gallery than a museum. The works are not sale but should be. You can see the whole museum in about an hour. When visiting the Washington Mall in Cape May it is worth the visit to be challenged by the art at the museum.