A great similarity between Morris-Jumel Mansion, the Tredwell Merchant’s House and the Lucus Homestead

1933, late August. Children, as they do, were playing in the street, running about and shouting, enjoying the beautiful weather when the front door of 29 East Front Street flew open and an old woman emerged out onto the front stoop. She was waving her arms and shouting at the children to be quiet.

All those in the street, children and adults alike, recognized her. She was Gertrude Tredwell. She scolded them and told them they were much too noisy and that they must calm down. Gertrude returned indoors and shut the door. A hush fell over the onlookers in the street, they were both amazed and frightened as they knew that Gertrude had been dead for several days prior.

In the 1960’s, a group of school children visited the Morris-Jumel Mansion. When they were waiting in the front lawn to enter the mansion, a red-haired woman came out on the narrow second-story balcony telling the children to keep quiet because her husband was very sick. The children didn’t pay much attention to the lady. They assumed she was an actress belonging to the museum.

The curator of the museum collected the children up and when they arrived at Eliza’s bedchamber, they all pointed at the mannequin yelling it was her they had seen. The curator was sure there was no-one else inside the mansion at the time.

2006 a school group of children were just arriving at the Lucas House, to explore what life was like in 1840. As the children entered the home a woman spirit manifested in front of them sending the children and teacher running out of the house in terror.

This had happened several times over the year. The spirit eventually being identified as Elizabeth Young-Lucas.
The house built in 1835 and was saved and moved to its present location, in Milton’s Country Heritage Park. It operates as a museum which shows how a working home operated in the 1840s. Most of the family’ original furniture remains in the home.