Kreischer House, also known as Kreischer Mansion, is a historic home located at Charleston, Staten Island, New York City. Built by German immigrant Balthasar Kreischer about 1885, it is a large, asymmetrically massed 2+1⁄2-story, wood-frame house in the American Queen Anne style. The rectangular house features spacious verandas, gables with jigsaw bargeboards, decorative railings, posts and brackets, tall chimneys, and a corner tower. It was one of two mansions built by Kreischer for his sons. The surviving house belonged to son Edward Kreischer; the other one had been his brother Charles's.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1]
Kreischer Mansion | |
New York City Landmark No. 0391
| |
Location | 4500 Arthur Kill Rd., Staten Island, New York |
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Coordinates | 40°31′57″N 74°14′18″W / 40.53250°N 74.23833°W |
Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
Built | ca. 1885 |
Architectural style | American Queen Anne |
NRHP reference No. | 82001199[1] |
NYCL No. | 0391 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 29, 1982 |
Designated NYCL | February 20, 1968 |
On June 8, 1894, Edward B. Kreischer allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the right temple near his place of business, although murder is an ongoing theory.[2][3] Since then, there have been claims that Kreischer has haunted the property.[2][4] Along with other local stories of the house's violent history, this has given the house a supernatural reputation, leading it to be used as a location on television shows including Boardwalk Empire.[2]
In 1998, the Kreischer Mansion was bought with the intention of restoration and eventual sale by Isaac Yomtovian.[2] In 2008, then caretaker Joseph "Joe Black" Young was revealed to be a hitman for the Bonanno crime family, more specifically serving under Bonanno Soldier Gino Galestro.[5] He was convicted of the murder of rival mob associate Robert McKelvey, committed three years earlier on the property.[5][6][7]