The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1903-02-19
MADE HER
HOUSE her
PRISON
Mrs. Staab Is Dead After 23
Years Of Sail. Inflicted Retire.
ment From the World.

New York, Feb. 1e.-Not even death
could bring the key to the house of mys-
terry at 135 Bloomfield street, Hoboken, or
tell the secret of aged and wealthy Hetty
Staab who for % years lived there be-
hind barred doors and shuttered win
dows. never showing her face in all that
time until two days ago when she was
carried to st. Mary's hospital to die.
Last night the house was as full of
mystery as ever, its blinds AS tightly
drawn and all about the stiffness of
death. In the undertaking establishment
OF John O'Hara, three blocks away, Ms.
Staab's body lay in state. The friends
that had not looked upon her face for
near a quarter OF a century were flock
ing there through the snow storm 10 see
her. Around her coffin were gathered the
men and women that were her intimates
and associates in the days when she was
one OF the most sociable OF all the set
in which she moved.
But TO them all she was still mys-
terry, and not even the son, who has
been with her for 45 years. knew the sec
ret OF her life-the cause for her sudden
and continued retirement from society
and from association with every human
being except the three members OF her
family.
1t was in 1880 that Mrs. Staab sud
denly closed the blinds OF her house in
Bloomfield street and announced that
they must never be opened again. That
night, when her husband returned from
his place of business, at No 90 Barclay
street. where he had "A store OF artists
supplies he remonstrate ted. but was told
that the house was hers and that so
long as she lived she would never go
beyond its doors or show her face out
side it's walls. Furthermore. she told
him that no one besides her two sons
and her husband could ever enter the
house.
She kept her word. From that day
on no one was allowed in the house, not
even tradesmen or servants. Her son,
Washington. went three times a day to
a nearby restaurant and got food for
the family
Not all the urging Of her sons and
husband availed to persuade her TO go
back into tho society she had once en-
joyed. Being the daughter OF John Rob-
inson, the wealthy steamboat man, she
had plenty of money and a lineage that
stretched far back as any of the knick-
erbockers
But she gave everything to immure
herself in the walls OF her home. After
her husband died in 1890 she continued
Some people thought her husbands deatt
affected her. but her sons said she was
unchanged.
Tho ever closed shutters andl the gen
eral air OF mystery about the house made
the neighbors have a peculiar fear of IL
The birds can't and built their nests IN
the window blinds and were undisturbed
No light was allowed TO enter from the
front OF the house.
Finally the law stepped I'm to compe
Mrs Staab TO open her windows and
make the place wholesome. The health
inspector who went around TO give hel
notice was not allowed TO see inside ths
door lie went away convinced that Il
would be useless to try to interfere witt
Mrs. Staab To her she would say:
This is my house and | will live here
as | please
That was all the satisfaction they
could get from her and they could never
learn why she withdrew herself from th'
society of her friends.
"She simply wanted to live that way,
! her son said last night She spent he
| time reading and always seemed to b'
| happy. | was with her most of the time
! and ] know her mind was as sound a.
| that OF any woman
! Last Saturday Mrs. Staab fell i'll. an'
| her son called IN a physician. He had he
sent TO st. Marys hospital, where sh
: died on Sunday. She will he buried at tn
1 old family burying ground at Hudson, y
/ y.