While the crime rate in New York City has fallen off significantly in recent years, it didn’t always used to be that way. In fact, the city’s violent history stretches back all the way to the 1700s with one of the city’s most famous unsolved murders, the case of Gulielma Elmore Sands.
On the evening of Dec. 22, 1799 Gulielma Sands left her room in a Greenwich Street boarding home to meet her love, Levi Weeks. The two planed to elope later that night. Sadly, Sands never showed. 11 days later, her strangled body was found in a well in Lispenard’s Meadow, which today is Spring Street in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood. On the site of the former well now sits the trendy clothing store, COS.
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However, in the basement of the COS you can see what’s left of the well where Sands’ body was found all those years ago.
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It’s located on the lower floor, in the men’s clothing section.
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There it is behind the well dressed mannequins.
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After Sands’ death, her beloved Weeks was the obvious suspect. He was arrested, tried, and found not guilty. However Sand’s death created a media backlash against Weeks and he might as well have been guilty. After he was acquitted he had to leave the city, fearing for his life. In an even stranger twist, Sands’ family decided to display their daughter’s body outside of her former boarding house. They hoped to spur on public speculation. The crime still remains unsolved.
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The remnants of the well were completely forgotten until 1980. That’s when the building’s owner excavated part of the dirt filled basement, and accidentally discovered the old well.
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Before COS moved in, the building was home to a restaurant. The restaurant staff used to report all sorts of strange goings on near the remains of the well. Maybe COS will become the world’s first haunted clothing store?
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(source: Scouting NY)
It’s pretty weird for there to be a 200 year old well in the basement of a high end clothing store. But I suppose it’s one of those things you should expect from New York City.
