Hidden beneath a clothing store at 129 Spring Street in SoHo lies a well that seems completely out of place. So, what’s the story behind this well?
On the evening of December 17, 1799, Gulielma Elmore Sands left her boarding house to meet up with Levi Weeks. The two had been romantically involved and were planning to elope… but she was never seen alive again.
Eleven days after her disappearance, her body was discovered at the bottom of a well in Lispenard Meadows—an area now known as Spring Street. Authorities believed she had been strangled and charged Levi Weeks with her murder.
Weeks hired none other than Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr—who would later become Vice President and famously kill Hamilton in a duel in 1804—to defend him. In March of 1800, the two teamed up in court, and after just five minutes of deliberation, the jury found Weeks not guilty.
Despite his acquittal, public opinion continued to view him as guilty, and he ultimately fled the city.
The murder of Gulielma Elmore Sands remains unsolved to this day. But the well where her body was found still stands—in the basement of a SoHo clothing store.