Skip to main content

Life at Home in Old New York

 Last night, we time traveled to East Fourth Street in the mid-19th century.
 
For our annual Alumni Parents Council cultural event, Saint David’s alumni and alumni parent community were treated to a virtual tour of The Merchant’s House Museum, led by Museum Historian and our very own Alumni Parents Council Co-Chair Ann Haddad P ’09, ’12. Annie provided a firsthand look at the domestic lives of the Tredwells, a wealthy merchant class family and their Irish servants who lived in this home, our nation’s first structure to receive national historic landmark status.
 
The tour was fascinating, taking us through the entire late-Federal and Greek Revival row house, featuring the “jewel box” parlor level with beautiful architectural details, furniture, and other personal belongings from the Tredwell family. Throughout the tour, Annie provided a glimpse into life in Old New York, when the city’s destiny was determined by its proximity to the seaport and its northern boundary stopped at what is now Astor Place. We learned of the domestic customs of the day, be they the required “calling card” meetings among members of high society women or the morning bell ringing/bath running rituals, as well as the long hours of hard work put in by the servants.

In acknowledgment of the servants’ vital role, Annie closed with this takeaway: “There was no way that the Tredwell family and families like them could have maintained their lifestyles without the backbreaking work of their servants, who were in the family but not of the family.”
 
Thank you to Annie and to APC Co-Chair Winnie Feng P ’99 for keeping our alumni parent community connected through illuminating cultural events such as these. We are blessed that our alumni parents remain so actively involved and committed to their sons’ elementary school and so generously use their skills, experiences, and accomplishments to support and enhance the mission of Saint David’s. Thanks also to J.P. Hormillosa, Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Relations, for making the evening come to fruition.
 
For more information on the Merchant’s House Museum, visit their website: www.merchantshouse.org


Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Bringing Sound to Space

In the second entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative's quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," Saint David's reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Cathy O'Neill explores the pedagogical power of play in the education of young boys. BRINGING SOUND TO SPACE It began with a mound of mangled metal and the vapor of a vision gleaned from recent comments and random fact-dropping by the Pre-K boys. Unsure of what exactly I was looking for, but fueled by the idea of a makeshift rocket to dovetail with our upcoming space unit, I gingerly picked through the scrap pile until my hands grazed an old VW control panel devoid of its dashboard. Eureka! An array of knobs, dials, and buttons - while in reality, dead as doornails - in the right small hands, would become the epicenter of our NASA-inspired dramatic play corner. With a couple of lawn chairs and some old CB radio microphones to round out the set, engines would be ignited by the power of imagination. All systems go...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values  — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
Read more