Ghosted on Staten Island

As soon as my friend started describing his new seasonal side gig, terrorizing people at an old Victorian mansion on Staten Island, I knew he was referring to the Kreischer House. And I knew I’d now get to go inside the beautiful home I spied this summer. Dead By Dawn, an immersive haunted experience at the mansion, capitalizes on the property’s sorted past with a Halloween event intended to scare the hell out of you. In honor of the season and our general weirdness, we made a day of it, visiting Moravian Cemetery in “Old” Dorp. (We changed it to fit our day’s “narrative.”)

Besides being a gorgeous old cemetery, Moravian Cemetery has another lure–its Vanderbilt Mausoleum, rumored to be haunted. (Haunted by a woman in high-wasted jeans with contrasted stitching?) A private section of the cemetery blocked by an ornate wrought iron fence, but–also–upon a small incline, a chainlink fence with worn paths of trespass despite many scary No Trespassing signs, we tis’d the season and scared ourselves silly.

This day was made for cemetery exploration. Rustling leaves, streams of sun, and mild temperatures are so inviting. Listening to the Halloween soundtrack got us amped to make poor decisions. I determined that I’d likely be the first killed in this horror movie–for my sassy dialogue (involving randy squirrels) and my heedlessness.

Theory: A No Trespassing sign and a hole in the fence cancel each other out.

So this mausoleum, officially declared a landmark in 2016, is the final resting place of the Vanderbilt family… and it’s said to be haunted, though we–all open and willing to receive all sorts of non-normalcy–did not feel anything but a fear of the po-po. Ah but, the lure of New York Old Money! And these folks were loaded. The grandiose 3-story tomb that holds almost 30 of the Vanderbilts was built into a hill so that you can walk right onto the roof. There were a few folks up there when we arrived but we scared them away.

The flat steel doors definitely struck me as not part of the original design (by Hunt who designed the gorgeous Biltmore for patriarch Vanderbilt in Asheville, North Carolina). Apparently the original gates were responsible for the death of a young girl who pulled at them to enter, but I could not find any information about her on the world wide web.

Living on Long Island and visiting the Gold Coast, I’ve visited the Vanderbilt Mansion, a museum that shows you just how excessively rich the Vanderbilts were. And they also have a planetarium on the property.

Also in this private section of the cemetery, other tombs… possibly Vanderbilt moochers? The section of land was purchased by the Vanderbilts after all. Upon further sleuthing it seems most are families of the wives and husbands of Vanderbilt children.

At some point, when we heard a mean barking dog in the distance, we started to get really scared about being prosecuted as all the signs declared as consequence. But with that lots of jokes and uncomfortable giggles as we dodged a roving security vehicle out in the main cemetery, we continued to document our illegal activity.

We made it out without getting arrested! That calls for a group picture. Wait, if a place is a designated city landmark ain’t taxpayers allowed to visit? That would be my defense.

Some grave stops before we got locked in before it even closed!

I remember her from last time. Feels like many years ago.

She leans into me.

Such fascinating epitaphs on these old graves. I decided I would return to do some rubbings of some…

Like this one Tim found–

Remember me as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I,

As I am now, so you must be,

Prepare for death and follow me.

My life is spent

My grave you see …

We headed to Charleston for the second time, heading there initially to eat then driving back to New Dorp. This second time we were thirsty and in need of an old German tavern to fit the theme of the visit. I was sure that I had read that Killmeyer’s, a tavern dating back to 1890 when the area was called Kreischerville, was haunted. But as the huge Hummel figurine outside further evokes, the place was squeaky clean. (I was thinking of the Old Bermuda Inn in Rossville. Though I am sure that most inches of this earth have had some sort of bloodshed or evil inflicted upon them.)

The gorgeous bar. Not pictured, tall Hefeweizen.

Finally at the Kreischer Mansion. As I described in my last visit to Staten Island, this gorgeous Victorian mansion has had a sorted past. But tonight, alive and teeming with teeny boppers, sociologically scary in their own way. Once the events began, a ton of fun and screams. It was hard to get a look at the house with tons of creepy costumed folks making us scream wildly. My friend, a murderous hillbilly, attacked us upon leaving the mansion, right before the pig butcher with a chainsaw chased us back to my car. And was we headed back to Brooklyn blasting, once again, the Halloween soundtrack, he let me know that the event had been on hold as a worker slashed his forearm open and needed to go to the hospital. Don’t trifle with a haunted house!

Goodbye and Happy Halloween, Staten Island!