5. The Merchant’s House Museum was Manhattan’s first landmark
The Merchant’s House Museum at 29 East Fourth Street is a National Historic Landmark and one of the earliest New York City Landmarks. It was designated on October 14th, 1965, just a few months after New York City’s landmarks law was enacted (the very first. landmark in all of New York City was the Wyckoff House in Brooklyn). It remains the only 19th-century family house in New York City with both its exterior and interior intact as it was in the 1800s. Built in 1832 by a hatter named Joseph Brewster, the house has been restored to a mid-19th century Federal and Greek Revival style as it appeared under the ownership of Seabury Tredwell and his eight children.
Until her death in 1933, Tredwell’s daughter Gertrude occupied the house and successfully preserved its original elegance, even as the neighborhood was industrialized and nearby private homes were demolished or converted into boarding houses or tenements. Her distant cousin George Chapman purchased the building to save it from demolition, and in 1936, the restored and renovated home opened as the Merchant’s House Museum, a historic time capsule complete with the family’s original possessions.