Just in Time for Halloween: Stambovsky v. Ackley revisited?
A West Village house with a resident ghost is back on themarket – just in time for Halloween.
The historic Gay St. property, onthe corner of Waverly Place, is rumored to be inhabited by a restless spiritwho walks the creaking floorboards at night.
Legend has it a man in top hat andtails has been spotted in the building; some local historians say it isformer Mayor JimmyWalker, who once owned it.
“I wouldn’t go in there right now- it’s legendary that ghosts live there,” said Randy Credico, 54, who hasrented an apartment across the street from the haunted house for two decades.”That place would be like moving into ‘The Shining.’ “
The property, recently put on themarket by realtors Corcoran, comes with a $4.2 million price tag – ghostsincluded.
It was built in 1827 and housed aspeakeasy before Walker bought it for his mistress, Betty Compton, in the1920s.
Puppeteer Frank Paris,who designed the original Howdy Doody, also livedthere. Most recently it was home to ScientificAmericaneditor DennisFlanagan and his wife, Barbara.
Records show the Flanagans sold itin 2007. It has been gutted and is now an empty shell.
“I never saw him, I neverheard him,” BarbaraFlanagan said of the ghost. “I never smelled anything -except onions. The stairs were creaky, but you know what? It was a 200-year-oldhouse. Now it really looks like a haunted house – I guess it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.”
Other longtime Gay St. residentssay the rumors about the street’s uninvited houseguests go with the territory.
“There are ghosts in all ofthese buildings,” said Celeste Martin,who owns and manages the next-door townhouse. “They talk; they’re livingthings these buildings.”
Martin said that over the years,she has seen mysterious faces in windows and heard inexplicable noises.”It just happens, it’s very spiritual,” she said.
A Corcoran real estate agent saidthe company wasn’t aware of the home’s storied past.
West Village ghost tour guide andhistorian PhilSchoenburg doesn’t expect a prospective buyer to be deterred bythe spirits.
“Whoever moves in will becreative,” he said. “Some people like ghosts. They think it keeps theburglars away.”
[Meredith R. Miller]