Jannis (Jan) Bryant Bartell (December 20, 1918 - June 18, 1973), was an American author, poet, lecturer, and off Broadway actress.

Biography 

Born in New York City, Bartell was best known as the author of Spindrift: Spray From a Psychic Sea. She also appeared in off Broadway plays, which included Bell, Book and Candle and Night Must Fall. Her poetry was published in several magazines.

Her book, Spindrift relates the experiences of Bartell and her husband Fred G. Bartell (d.1990) while living in apartments in the buildings at 14-16 W.10th Street in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. According to the book, the apartments were haunted and Jan, at first a skeptic, underwent a series of unpleasant experiences that led her to modify her views on the paranormal.

The book chronicles Bartell's psychic development and the toll this took on her life. Bartell attempted to address the paranormal activities surrounding her, going so far as to contact Hans Holzer. Holzer, a ghost hunter and writer on the paranormal, proved to be of little use in quelling or interpreting the experiences, and according to Bartell, his unsuccessful intervention only added to her distress. 

The Bartells had no children. However Fred, and especially Jan, were strongly attached to the dogs that shared their lives during these difficult years. The story of the acquisition of one of these animals, Contessa, a Hungarian vizsla plays a prominent part in the book. Bartell worte that the dogs also reacted negatively to the ghostly presences and provided Jan with validation as to the reality of her experiences.

In 1973, troubled with the social and economic changes affecting their neighborhood, Bartell and her husband left Greenwich Village and moved to suburban New Rochelle where they bought a home. There Jan Bartell died, of an apparent heart attack on June 18, 1973 prior to the publication of her book.

The House of Death – Greenwich Village

Unassuming brownstone in the heart of Greenwich hides a dark and scary past.

The House of Death, located on 14 West 10th Street. The House of Death, located on 14 West 10th Street.

When a property is deemed “The House of Death,” you know there’s bound to be at least one gut-wrenching story attached to it!

This beautiful, Greek Revivalist brownstone is located in one of New York’s most picturesque neighborhoods, Greenwich Village. Built in 1856, The House of Death was the home to many of the city’s elite, including the wife of James Boorman Johnston, the founder of the Metropolitan Underground Railroad and the Broadway Underground Railroad. James Boorman Johnston also helped to establish a library, reading room, and gallery of art in New York City. After he died, his wealthy widow1 moved their daughters into The House of Death in the 1880s.

Many other famous aristocrats would live at 14t West 10th Street after it left the hands of the Boorman family. In 1897, cyclist Fred H. Andrew became its new owner. Bad luck for the home seems to begin with Andrew’s residency. A moment of “reckless bicycle riding”2 caused him to collide with an eight-year old boy. The poor lad broke his leg, and Andrew was arrested. The house was deemed cursed a few years later.

But the house’s most famous tenant was Mark Twain. The acclaimed American author, whose real name is Samuel Clemens, moved into The House of Death three years after Andrew did. Twain lived at the house for one year. During his stay, Twain battled financial troubles and depression. Local lore tells of Twain, a die-hard ghost skeptic, having a very paranormal experience in his new home. One night, he saw a piece of kindling move by itself. Thinking it was a rat, he shot at the piece of wood. It promptly dropped to the floor, along with a few drops of blood. Though there were no signs of rats in the building, Twain insisted that the blood was from a rodent, and not from a ghost.

Ironically, Twain is said to still roam The House of Death. Residents have reported seeing his apparition walking up and down the stairwell, which is considered to be the most haunted portion of the home. Disembodied footsteps are also heard throughout other vacant portions of the house.

One famous Twain encounter happened in the 1930s. In 1937, the home was renovated and turned into a co-op consisting of ten apartments. Shortly after the building’s transformation, a mother and her daughter came across Twain’s ghost sitting by a window. He approached the two, saying “My name is Clemens, and I has a problem here I gotta settle.”3 He disappeared into thin air moments later. What he needed to settle, no one knows. Why Twain, who did not die in the house, appears so frequently there in spirit form also remains a mystery. Not having died in The House of Death, why his spirit appeared there remains a mystery.

In 1957, actress, writer, and psychic Jan Bryant Bartell and her daughter moved into the apartment on the house’s top floor, which was once the servants’ quarters. According to Bartell, “a monstrous moving shadow”4 would always follow her around the house. She also once reported of seeing a spectral figure of a man in the hallway. When she reached out to touch him, she felt this figure was, as she described, “A substance without substance. Chilly, damp. Diaphanous as marsh mist or a cloud of ether. I could feel my fingers freeze at the tips. They were numb, and yet they tingled. In the split second between contact and recoil, the scent came. Fragile and languorous. And sweet; unbearably, cloyingly sweet.”5 This strange scent would was among the many pungent odors the Bartell family would smell during their time at The House of Death. Rotten food not purchased by them would spontaneously appear at the dinner table. Their pets would also often growl at invisible enemies in the building.

Bartell hired a “paranormal expert” to look into what could be behind these terrifying experiences. The investigator confirmed what many had believed all along. He said that there were some twenty-two ghosts presiding at The House of Death. Besides Mark Twain, these included a woman dressed in white, a young girl, and a gray cat. After learning about all of this, Bartell decided to pen a manuscript documenting her experiences with the paranormal at 14 West 10th Street. In Spindrift: Spray from a Psychic Sea, she recounts what it’s like to live in a possessed house.

Besides being followed by a “monstrous moving shadow,” Bartell also experienced strange visions and heard many unexplained noises in the house. Here’s a piece from the jacket of Spindrift:

“Like a game of Ten Little Indians, deaths began to occur in the house. The first to die was a dog, Jan’s own beloved Penelope. But within twenty-four hours, she was to learn of the death of the first human tenant. Whether by heart attacks, suicide or murder, the deaths came in rapid succession…. In terror, with nine little Indians gone, the Bartells moved far away from Greenwich Village. But the haunting followed them. After the completion of Spindrift, Jan Bartell became the tenth.”7

Mere weeks after writing the original manuscript, Bartell died under what are still considered mysterious circumstances. Her unexplained death further supported that The House of Death was cursed. But many people were still skeptical – deaths go unsolved all the time. But after 1987, few doubters remained. On November 2, 1987, New York City’s experienced its own Amityville Horror-like story at The House of Death. Indeed, the murder of Lisa Nussbaum has a plot more twisted than some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed horror flicks.

Around 6:40 AM, 9-11 operators got a pressing phone call from children’s author and editor, Hedda Nussbaum. She said that her six-year old 8 daughter, Lisa, wasn’t breathing, so an ambulance was sent to her Greenwich residence right away. When the paramedics arrived, they were greeted by a very disturbing scene. They found Lisa lying naked and unresponsive on the kitchen floor, and her brother, Mitchell, tied to a playpen and soaked in his own urine. Nussbaum herself was covered with bruises and had several broken bones. Investigators also discovered marijuana, cocaine, hashish, over twenty crack pipes, and $25,000 in cash at the apartment.

The events in The House of Death soon seeped into a neighboring home as well. In this complex, people have noticed flickering lights, as well as a spectral female figure in a long gown. One resident, a photographer, had seen her float through doors for twenty years. He says that ghosts have scared away subjects for his work.

The House of Death and its surrounding buildings. The House of Death and its surrounding buildings.

This unassuming, classic brownstone, situated near beautiful Washington Square in Greenwich Village with scary, and sometimes sad, stories revolving around the House of Death only prove you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

The building is currently under private ownership, and legends of paranormal activity continue to circulate about The House of Death. The most haunted part of the house is said to be the stairwell, where many of the ghosts make an appearance.  Indeed, this unassuming, classic brownstone proves that you should never judge a book by its cover!