If her ghost did remain here, it is because she was so house-proud. — Carol Ward (image via National Portrait Gallery) Eliza was born in a brothel, but died in a mansion — one she allegedly haunts still. She escaped her childhood brothel (what else am I supposed to call it???) in the late 1790s, journeying to New York to find work as an actress. She used her dramatic chops to infiltrate the city's upper society, where she met and married her first husband, the wealthy merchant Stephen Jumel, in 1804. They bought their Manhattan mansion — which the New York Times once called "like Tara transplanted to 160th Street" — and began traveling through Europe, where Eliza collected priceless antiquities and works of art.
A Woman to Know: Eliza Jumel
A Woman to Know: Eliza Jumel
A Woman to Know: Eliza Jumel
If her ghost did remain here, it is because she was so house-proud. — Carol Ward (image via National Portrait Gallery) Eliza was born in a brothel, but died in a mansion — one she allegedly haunts still. She escaped her childhood brothel (what else am I supposed to call it???) in the late 1790s, journeying to New York to find work as an actress. She used her dramatic chops to infiltrate the city's upper society, where she met and married her first husband, the wealthy merchant Stephen Jumel, in 1804. They bought their Manhattan mansion — which the New York Times once called "like Tara transplanted to 160th Street" — and began traveling through Europe, where Eliza collected priceless antiquities and works of art.