.jpg)
By Arleth Garcia
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Kreischer Mansion is an empty Victorian mansion on Staten Island; it is said to be haunted but is a real-life crime scene. It is said to be one of the most haunted places in New York, which could be true, but only if one is referring to being haunted by memories of murder and death. Balthasar Kreischer went to Staten Island in the mid-1800s; he brought with him successful brickworks that led to an economic boom in the area; it then became known as Kreischervile. With all the wealth he was accumulating, Kreischer built twin mansions atop Kreischer Hill for two of his sons. Balthasar died just a year after they were completed, but what followed it was maybe for the best. After his death, the brick factory that his children inherited burned to the ground. They tried to rebuild, but the blow was too great, and their fortunes soon fell. One of the two mansions was destroyed during the Great Depression; in the one that still stands, one of the brothers committed violent suicide and the mansison managed to survive despite the family’s poor fortune. However, the gothic house soon became the target of local superstition and all manner of ghosts. Some ghost stories include voices and lights that begin to surround the moldering manse. Although its reputation was never really abandoned, no business or resident has managed to stay there for long. There was a very real crime that occurred there in 2005, on the orders of a mafia boss. The caretaker of the empty mansion was paid thousands of dollars to carry out a hit at the site, which he did; he dismembered the body and burned it in the basement furnace. In 1968, the City of New York designated the Kreischer Mansion a landmark, not for its history but for its profuse decoration.
Works Cited: Kreischer Mansion
Comments