Philip Schoenberg - Ghosts of Manhattan: Legendary Spirits and Notorious Haunts

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2009 by Dr. Philip Schoenberg

All rights reserved

All photographs by Jeffrey Karg unless otherwise stated.

First published 2009

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.375.6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schoenberg, Philip Ernest, 1948

Ghosts of Manhattan : legendary spirits and notorious haunts / Philip Schoenberg.

p. cm.

Includes index.

print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-851-4

1. Ghosts--New York (State)--New York. 2. Haunted places--New York (State)--New York. 3. Tales--New York (State)--New York. I. Title.

BF1472.U6S337 2009

133.1097471--dc22

2009036410

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book. The author will be grateful for corrections, additions and suggestions.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Firstly, I would like to dedicate this book in honor of my parents, Nettie and Hyman Schoenberg.

Secondly, I would like to express my appreciation to my speech and vocal coach who transformed me from a monotone to a polytone.

Thirdly, I would like to dedicate this work to my wonderful corps of tour guides whom I have trained based on my research and who in turn enriched my study of ghost lore: Matt Baker, Kathryn Carissimi, Annie Desmond, Jamie Owens, Gordon Linzner, Katya Schapiro and my nephew Gabriel Schoenberg.

Finally, I would like to thank Caroline Ynez Jova, my NYU history intern (20089), who was the first one to proofread the whole manuscript.

CONTENTS

Praise for Phil Schoenbergs tour company, Ghosts of New York

How much do you really know about the citys spooky side? August may be the dog days, but in the cool of the evening, you can further your understanding of olde Gotham with Ghosts of New York Walking Tours.

The weekly jaunts are filled with tales of skeletons in the Big Apples closetChannel the spirits of Edgar Allan Poe, Peter Stuyvesant and Harry Houdini

Discover haunted locales, paranormal occurrences and unexplainable instances straight out of favorite ghost stories.

Adrianne Pasquarelli

Things that Go Bump in the Street

If youre too scared to visit New Yorks most haunted spots solo, Phil Schoenberg, a history professor at Queens College, is the man for the job. His Ghosts of New York tours offer three area- and ghost-specific tours of the city.

Gina Salamone

New York City Is a Ghost Town

Daily News

March 31, 2009

I cant thank you enough for making the Ghost Tour possible for my daughter and our friends Saturday. Katya was lovely and a fount of information. It was a chilly day but we were all warmed by her enthusiasm and lively presentation. I will pass on the good word as often as I can.

Roma Torre

NY1 News Anchor

CUNY professor Dr. Phil Schoenberg offers walking tours of New Yorks most haunted spots, helping you find the friends of Edgar Alan Poe and the ghosts of Times Square.

Answers About Haunted New York

The City Room

New York Times

October 29, 2007

I highly recommend Dr. Phils Ghosts of New York walking tours. I just took the one called Peter Stuyvesant and His Ghostly Friends of the East Village and found it fascinatingexcellent researchfacts and stories about not just Stuyvesant, but John Jacob Astor, Hamilton Fish, Harry Houdini, Joe Papp, Edgar Allan Poe and other colorful deceased New Yorkers who still unnerve the living by showing up at the various sites along the tour, which involves a moderate amount of by no means tiring walking. The personable guide shared with evident glee her bountiful information about history, literature and, of course, spooks!

Marvin Kaye

Ghosts, Haunted America and H.P. Lovecrafts Magazine of Horror (editor)

Ghosts of Night and Morning (author)

FOREWORD

I have known Philip Ernest Schoenberg yclept (an archaic version of also known as) Dr. Phil long before the teleshrink with the voice redolent of molasses and grits who burst on the scene via television talk shows co-opted the name.

Phil Schoenberg, licensed New York tour guide and walking tour entrepreneur, is a native of Queens County, New York, and has a doctorate in history. Other than accurately anticipating his clients desires or creating a new product for them, he doesnt claim to offer psychotherapy.

Innovative as always, this Dr. Phil, truly an original, is developing a new tour nicheghosts. This volume will be your appetizer prior to a feast of phantoms, spooks, wraiths and spirits of people and places in New Yorks glorious past.

Lee Gelber

Lee Gelber is an urban historian/guide, dubbed Dean of Guides by the New York Times, and is a member of the Guides Association of New York City. He includes architecture, Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, the Bronx and jazz tours among his specialties.

INTRODUCTION

Why are we fascinated by ghosts? Whether we are believers or skeptics, we are all fascinated by the unknown. When we die, is that it? Or do we get another opportunity in one way or another? Above all, if we cannot have life, we would like to be remembered in some way.

Why do we have ghosts? Usually, in most stories, the ghost has unfinished business of some kind and cannot let go. Often a traumatic incident such as a murder has occurred, or in very rare instances, a curse has been uttered. Thus, ghosts are usually unhappy; you do not frequently get a ghost that says, Wish you were here.

The question is: are there really ghosts? Al Schroeder, a frequent letter writer to newspapers, comments that ghosts do not understand they are dead and are in a state of shock unable to understand what has happened to them. In an obituary on Hans Holzer, the noted ghost hunter, the New York Times quoted him: After all, a ghost is only a fellow human being in trouble who does not understand that he or she is no longer among the living because of sudden circumstances that transformed their fates. Likewise, in their Village Voice article City of Ghosts, Tom Robbins and Jennifer Gonnerman noted that ghosts leave gaps of memory among their loved ones and friends.

On the negative side, the great British novelist Sir Walter Scott, in Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (co-authored with J.G. Lockhart in 1836), was very careful in accepting the truth about ghost stories. Scott declared that it was one thing to enjoy ghost stories and another to determine if they really occurred. He writes that an English judge stopped a witness from relating what the ghost of the murder victim had told him. The judge declared that repeating this evidence was hearsay. However, the judge noted, the ghost placed under oath would make an excellent witness and would provide the very best possible evidence and if the ghost could be placed under oath, he would be glad to have the ghost testify in court.

Did Edgar Allan Poe himself believe in ghosts? If you read carefully, childrens author Daniel Cohen explains in his book