Kreischer House
4500 Arthur Kill Road | Charleston | built 1899
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1880
A towered, jigsaw-trimmed Stick Style house is designed for a knoll above the Arthur Kill
The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates the design of the two-and-a-half-story frame house to 1880. A three-story polygonal corner tower with an open, arched top story dominates it, and a veranda with diamond-paneled railings wraps partway around. The commission likened its profuse cutout ornament to Mississippi riverboats, and its slatted attic balcony and filigreed gable to a Swiss chalet.
- 1885
Balthasar Kreischer builds the mansion for his son Edward
German immigrant Balthasar Kreischer put up two mansions for his sons around 1885. This is the one that survives; it belonged to Edward Kreischer, while the second house was his brother Charles's. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
“It was one of two mansions built by Kreischer for his sons. The surviving house belonged to son Edward Kreischer…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1894
Edward Kreischer's violent death starts the ghost stories told about his house
Edward B. Kreischer died of a gunshot to the right temple near his place of business on June 8, 1894. It was called a suicide, though a murder theory persists, with tales that his wife and a doctor were poisoning him. Claims that he haunts the house followed, and its eerie reputation later drew television productions, including Boardwalk Empire.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
The Kreischer House becomes a city landmark honoring the founder of Kreischerville
After a 1966 hearing, with the owner's support, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house in 1968. It called the house a memorial to Balthasar Kreischer, whose fire-brick and clay retort works, opened in 1874, turned the area into Kreischerville. His plant made terra cotta used at Barnard College and bricks for St. Luke's Hospital, and he lent workers money to buy homes.
“…the House stands as a memorial to a man who played an important role in the industrial expansion of Staten Island…”
- 2008
The mansion's caretaker is exposed as a Bonanno hitman who killed a man on the grounds
Isaac Yomtovian bought the house in 1998 intending to restore and sell it. In 2008 it came out that the house's caretaker, Joseph "Joe Black" Young, worked as a Bonanno family hitman under soldier Gino Galestro. Young was convicted of murdering rival mob associate Robert McKelvey on the property three years before.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2024
Eric Bischoff and Julia Mackie buy the Kreischer House and restore it
The house changed hands in 2024, when Eric Bischoff and Julia Mackie bought it. The new owners restored the mansion, and the project was backed by $445,000 in New York State funding.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Kreischer HouseWikipedia
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