For the last 85 years, the Merchant’s House Museum has carried on the legacy of its founder: preserving the house and its original collection, and sharing the story of a wealthy merchant family in mid-19th century New York with thousands of visitors each year.

This exhibition traces the museum’s 85-year history, from the struggle of the museum’s founder to realize his quixotic vision, to the dedication of a group of professional woman committed to reclaiming the beauty of the house’s original furnishings, to the critical intervention of an architect who devoted his life to an authentic structural restoration, to today’s ongoing struggle to protect the house from what could be catastrophic damage from construction of the proposed seven-story building next door.

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