On January 30, 2009 psychic medium, Richard Schoeller gave a gallery reading at The Bartow-Pell Mansion. I arranged the evening and told Richard nothing about where he was going or what he was walking into. The only thing he knew about the evening was that he would be giving a gallery reading to about 50 people. That was it, he didn’t know it was a museum, he didn’t know it was in the Bronx and he didn’t know anybody in attendance.
Richard, along with myself, Dan Tisher and Mike Gustavson, arrived early so Richard could walk through the mansion and give us any impressions that he might be able to pick up. This little, “bonus,” event was just as incredible as the gallery reading he would do later. During the walk through Richard would relay his impressions to Jennifer, the liaison between us and the museum. He asked that Jennifer only answer, “yes, no,” or, “I don’t know,” to any questions he might have, he didn’t want any other information. He also didn’t want us to confirm anything with him about the house until after we left. Richard was able to pick up on a few spirits that he said were following us around and were curious as to what we were doing. One of the most incredible things for me during this quick little walk around was when Richard sat down at a particular desk on the second floor of the mansion. Richard sat down in front of the desk and immediately asked if the house had anything to do with the American Revolution. Now, the house was built in the 1830's, which Richard didn't know about till we arrived and he saw the plaque on the outside of the house. Richard was confused by his sudden impression of the revolution and we didn't help with our, "No," answer. What Richard didn't know till we were driving home was, the desk he sat down at and got the impression of the American Revolution was on loan from another museum here in the city. The desk belonged to Aaron Burr, a Revolutionary War hero who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
click on the play button below to listen to Richard Schoeller's gallery reading at The Bartow-Pell Mansion, January 30th, 2009.
if you would like to download and listen later, windows users can right click and save as here (mac users control click)