The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-10-30
In New York
Rv PAUL HARRISON

.
 New York.AIt isn't true that ghosts haunt only old houses on fine wind blown countryside. They
 visit New York, same as anybooy, and are not a whit disturbed by the crowds and noises and exhaust
 fumes. nor even by the general
 disregard of a city too intent on material matters to take its Hal lowe'en spooks seriously. A ghost census of Manhattan probably would tally an amazing number of residential wraiths. All the older sections of the town are full of them-especially Harlem and the lower east side, and the Chelsea district. Dozens of old buildings have been torn down years before their time because people believed them haunted and wouldn't occupy them at any price. There's one studio apartment m a modern building in the East Ftf- ties which is leased at a third its normal rental-and all on account of a ghost. A little after o'clock each morning. high-heeled slippers tap across the hardwood floor and a nebulous shape moves about the
 room. Soon 1t vanishes into the fireplace.
 Gossip of the neighborhood has 1t that an artist lived there a few years ago. One night, for motives never made clear, he killed a beautiful model and concealed her body in the chimney. On the day of its discovery the body Of the
 artist was taken from the East River. Just a story, of course, and it's denied by the owners of
 the building. But then, they would deny 1t.
 Phantom of the Opera
 For a long time the city's most important spook has sat moodily in the lower right-hand box of About 8:3O of an evening, 1t des- cends from the eerie upper reach- es of the vacant building, slumps into the box, and for nearly three hours give the impression of watching the stage-a stage which to ordinary eyes seems barren and dusty.
 This is the ghost of Oscar Ham merstein. At least, so say veteran attaches of the place. One door man and a watchman quit their jobs because of the apparition, but the present, watchman says he things 1t is due to some peculiar play of shadows. Hopes so, any
 way.
 WOOlcOtt's Fayorite Ghost
 Alexander Woollcott, doter on misty folklore, once told about the
 ancient house at No. 69 Washing ton Square. Back in 1907, Will
 Irwin rented an entire floor and from the time he began writing there he was obsessed with the feeling that somebody, or some- thing, continually was watching him. And then, at 3 o'clock each morning, he'd awaken with an aw- ful sensation of some clammy and imminent horror. Didn't see any thing, but finally had to move to a hotel to save his nerves. Irwin loaned the apartment to James Hopper, another writer, and Hopper had identical experiences.
 So did Samuel Hopkins Adams, who tried to sleep there two or
 three nights. Later, two Boston
 women were given the key for the duration of their New York visit. But they fjed the house with the
 first visitation of the inexplicabls terror.
 Not until several years after- ward did the persons concerned in the mystery learn an additional fact about the old house. Once, when Washington square was n
 Potter's Yield, and when a gall0ws
 stood where the memorial arch
 stands now, No. 90 was the city
 Even Churches Are Haunted
 The Chelsea region has its share
 Of spooks, Under the Church Of
 tho Holy Apostles, on Ninth ayes
 Due, are eatae0mbs where eoffins
 awaiting burial used to be kept. And Deigbbors claim to have heard,
 late at night, weird organ music
 from the dark church,
 Near General Theological Sem
 mary, in old Chelsea, is the D9-
 year-0ld house of H. E. Belknap,
 bursar of the school, Hugh Wal pole onee wrote novel, "The
 Green Mirror" about the house, It
 has q ghost, q mapDerly sDoOk that
 creates 70 disturbance except for
 frequent trips ID and down the
 stairs,
 Nearby is the home of an ar-
 tist, George st0BehilL He haTbors ghost, too, It was watching him
 paint one day when one Of his
 Friends spotted it and followed it
 10 the cellar, where t vanished,
 Weeks later part Of the cellar floor collapsed Into a hidden underr ground room, From this z musty, mgsterloys lgnnel lea n the dIree,