10. The Alice Austen House
Clear Comfort, the seemingly quaint and peaceful home of 19th-century photographer Alice Austen, is one of Staten Island’s most historic homes and one of its most haunted. Alice moved into this 1690s Dutch farmhouse with her mother in the 1860s. It was in this home that Austen discovered and nurtured her passion for photography and lived happily with her lover Gertrude Tate until the Great Depression. By 1945, Austen’s dwindling inheritance and declining health forced the couple out of Clear Comfort. Societal and familial rejection of their relationship forced the two women apart. Austen and Tate’s final wishes were to be buried together, but after Austen died in 1952, their families prevented the pair’s longed-for reunion.
On the podcast, Someone Lived Here, Victoria Monroe, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House, told host Kendra Gaylord that Austen herself believed the house was haunted by a rejected lover who hanged himself in the entryway of the home during the Revolutionary War. In more modern times, House staff have claimed to experience ghostly activity believed to be the doing of Austen’s spirit. On the podcast, Monroe relates a story of a new caretaker who awoke in the middle of the night to a crashing sound. He found that the sound had come from a picture that had fallen and shattered. This happened three times in the same night until he eventually acknowledged the spirit of Austen and introduced himself as the new caretaker. Others have claimed to see fog and mist in the house, while all the windows and doors are closed. You can visit the home, which is now a museum, and check for yourself.
