This lovely Greek Revival brownstone at 14 West 10th Street has an awfully creepy nickname.
Built in 1856, it’s been dubbed the “House of Death” because a reported 22 former residents have haunted the place over the years.
“In 1974, a former actress turned psychic, Jan Bryant Bartell, detailed her experiences living in the house in the book Spindrift: Spray From a Psychic Sea,” states a New York Times FYI column from 2002.
“Ms. Bartell claimed that a number of tenants had died mysteriously and that the building was haunted by spirits.”
One supposed ghost is Mark Twain, who lived there in 1900.
“According to Ms. Bartell, a mother and daughter living on the ground floor in the 1930’s found an old man with white hair in the living room one evening. The startled mother asked him who he was, the figure replied, ‘My name is Clemens, and I has a problem here I gotta settle’ and disappeared.”
This brownstone has an eerie rep for another reason: It’s where Joel Steinberg beat his six-year-old daughter Lisa to death in a second-floor apartment in 1987—one of the most shocking murders in the city’s history.
Tags: 14 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village brownstone, haunted New York City, Joel Steinberg, Lisa Steinberg, Mark Twain house 10th Street, New York brownstone, spooky houses NYC
Ephemeral New York 
October 1, 2012 at 12:00 pm |
I was going to the psychiatric therapy center right in the next building at the time and it’s amazing how many cars were double parked as people tried to get their apartment that had become suddenly available, regardless what had just happened to little Lisa. Oh, in that building a plaque marks that it’s also the site of Mark Train living there. Eerie coincidence.
October 1, 2012 at 8:11 pm |
[…] The ‘House of Death’ on West 10th Street (Ephemeral New York) […]
October 2, 2012 at 6:50 pm |
This house happens to be the last stop on the “Mark Twain’s New York” walking tour which I will be leading next Sunday at 1-2:30 PM (see http://www.MarkTwainsNewYork.com for details). I really doubt Twain would have any reason to haunt the place. He was there for only about a year, and during that time it was a house of celebration and gaiety.
October 2, 2012 at 7:27 pm |
Wonderful! I no longer live in NY, after living on the Lower East Side for 60 plus years, but my memory is very clear and vibrant. It’s great that your tour still exists, hope you get a big crowd following you around. Best of luck.
September 20, 2013 at 4:15 pm |
In the 1840s,14 West 10th was the address of Guardian Engine Company No. 29 of the volunteer fire department. Eli Bates, who was appointed Chief of the paid department in 1873, began his long and illustrious fire company here in 1846. I wonder if any of the horses or firemen from this company are haunting this home today…
October 1, 2013 at 7:04 am |
Jan Bryant Bartell’s book is worth reading. I hope someone writes a biography about her someday.
October 29, 2014 at 5:19 pm |
very cool
October 29, 2014 at 5:21 pm |
stop this is Jan Bryant Bartell and if this doesn’t stop am coming for u
October 28, 2015 at 2:17 am |
Found the book fascinating so I painted Jan Bryant Bartell in front of 16 West 10th Street
June 21, 2016 at 2:01 pm |
[…] home. It isn’t open to the public, but just looking at the outside of the home, pictured at https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/the-house-of-death-on-west-10th-street/, is enough to give you chills. It is reported to be haunted by over 22 […]
September 4, 2019 at 9:41 pm |
[…] ‘La casa de la muerte’ […]
July 10, 2021 at 11:00 am |
[…] https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/the-house-of-death-on-west-10th-street/ […]