The Good Guys Won This One!
The Merchant’s House Museum, showing the original Duncan Phyfe chairs. The carpet and window treatment are exact reproductions of what …
Category Archives: Historic House Museums
How a Hundred-eighty-six-year-old House Survived the Odds and Why It Should Be Cherished
August, 1933—The country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Gertrude Tredwell had just died at the age of …
Helen Hayes Nailed It!
We never know who is going to walk through the door of the Merchant’s House. One day in August of …
102 Words That Say It All
Ada Louise Huxtable was the first architecture critc for a major U.S. newspaper and will long be remembered for the …
From the White House to the Merchant’s House
On September 26, the New York City Council will vote on whether to approve a developer’s application to build an …
Leave it to the Ladies—Women and Historic Preservation
In 1853 Louisa Bird Cunningham was traveling by steamboat down the Potomac River. As the boat passed George Washington’s home, …
More Ghostly Than a Ghost
First Cup of Coffee Our youngest grandson came by yesterday. A junior in college, he towers over us and has a …
“Our society will be defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy.” John Sawhill
John Sawhill, the conservationist who made this observation, had nature in mind, but I think it applies even more powerfully …
Check Out the Size of That Dinner Napkin!
In 1840, when Henry Cole painted The Dinner Party, napkins had to be very large to cover the voluminous skirts …
How and Why We Became Publishers, Part Three, Merchant’s House Meet POD
After we moved to Manhattan we made it a point to see all the things people come to the city …
