The Merchant’s House and the Not-So-Secret Passageway
4/30/202621 min
Historians have known about the strange passageway in the Merchant’s House Museum for decades, but they never knew what it was for… until now. And now that we know, it changes everything we thought we knew about why the Merchant’s House really matters.
Learn more about the fight to save the Merchant’s House: https://merchantshouse.org/calltoarms/
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJohanna Mayer· Host0:01
[music playing] In an old row house in New York City's East Village, there's a secret passageway. Today, that row house is a museum. It's called the Merchant's House. It was built in 1832, and its claim to fame is that it has been meticulously preserved. The family that lived in the house donated it, and the museum kept it basically as is. And actually, that secret passageway, it's not such a secret. Historians have known about it for decades.
Camille Serkowitz· Guest0:36
[music playing] In 1933, someone pulled out a drawer of one of the built-in closets and found a lid. When you lift the lid, it uncovers, um, an opening to a passageway that goes down.
Johanna Mayer· Host0:51
[music playing] Pull out a rattly dresser drawer and there's a two-by-two foot opening, with wooden rungs leading down to the basement pantry below. It ends there. The original exit is long gone.
Camille Serkowitz· Guest1:06
You have to pull it out of the closet in order ... And put, set it aside, and then you can see the space. So it's really, it's a really visceral experience.
Johanna Mayer· Host1:16
But the purpose of this secret, or not so secret, passageway was its own kind of mystery. Its opening is a walk-in