As CNN recently reminded us, a clothing store in New York’s posh SoHo area is said to be haunted. The site, on Spring Street, has changed hands several times over the years, welcoming a variety of businesses, but it now houses the brand COS, owned by H&M. COS, which has shops worldwide, opened its Spring Street store at the end of 2014.
The 18th-century brick well at the heart of the legend remains partially preserved within the boutique. In the 1980s, Marie DaGrossa, then owner of Manhattan Bistro, stumbled upon the well while digging to expand her business downward. The well had been covered long ago by dirt and the like when New York City raised street levels. Now, the well stands prominently and proudly for shoppers to see, as COS has kindly and cutely restored it.
The story goes that, on December 22, 1799, 21-year-old milliner Gulielma Elmore Sands, or “Elma,” snuck away from her tenement for a night with Levi Weeks, her secret lover who lived across the hall. It is believed that the young woman perhaps expected him to marry her that very evening. A witness testified that, when the murder would have occurred, she heard a female scream issue from around the area of the well, “Lord have mercy on me, Lord help me.” On January 2, 1800, Sands’ body was discovered in the famous well, which sat on what was then Lispenard’s Meadow. Public opinion held that Weeks had impregnated Sands and then strangled her. Encouraging heated rumors that might spur progress, Sands’ family boldly displayed her corpse.
Weeks was arrested but let off the hook (though he had to flee to Mississippi), thanks to a wealthy uncle who enlisted the legal representation of Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. One of Sands’ relatives appropriately cursed Hamilton, and a friend of the deceased demanded that Heaven bring about an unnatural death for the lawyer. Hamilton’s time on earth ended in the summer of 1804 during a duel with Burr; thus, some might conclude that justice was served in a way.
Shoppers at This NYC Clothing Store Might Be Standing Above a Haunted Murder Site
CNN quoted The Corrector, which ran from 1822-1911, “[…] screams, fire-balls and a figure in white were nightly reported to be heard and seen […].” Even as Manhattan Bistro, the site remained home to scientifically unexplainable occurrences, which spooked both staff and patrons, as the apparition of Sands. In conversation with The New York Post, one representative of the restaurant, who had observed ashtrays flying from tables and crashing against walls, joked, “Maybe Elma’s ghost doesn’t like smoking.”
That is, quite clearly, all very horrifying, indeed. However, it seems that the “Spring Street Ghost” has possibly fled from the manifestation of Swedish minimalism within her old haunt; verily, the aesthetic is far from everyone’s cup of tea. Whether or not that is the case is a subject that requires further investigation.
Spring Street’s COS is, of course, not the only clothing store that just might be visited by the paranormal. For example, in Chihuahua, Mexico, a mannequin dubbed La Pascualita has earned international fame, as some believe the shockingly realistic bride is actually the embalmed corpse of the now-late owner’s daughter who perished due to the bite of a black widow shortly before her own wedding.
One theory is that a magician might have meddled with the mannequin, thus explaining the odd happenings that some claim to have witnessed around the lovely lady.
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