Ashley Semrick is bringing history to life.

"We are going to go back in time today,” she told a group on a Saturday afternoon tour. “So I welcome you."  

The Park Slope resident volunteers at the Merchant’s House Museum, a preserved row house dating back to the 1800s.

"History wasn't names and dates and random places,” Semrick said. “History was people. And so finding these little particular pockets of history that is full of the stories of actual people continues to compel me."

Semrick began volunteering at the museum four years ago.

"This is a rare place to have the stories, the artifacts and the building all together,” she said. “We don't get a lot of places like that." 

One of her favorite parts of New York City’s history is the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Outside of her museum work, she often portrays Emily Warren Roebling — an unofficial engineer of the bridge — to teach schoolchildren about its history.

"Often children know I'm not really from the past, but it offers this suspension of disbelief to help them understand that people from the past were real," Semrick said.

Preserving history is a top priority for Semrick and the Merchant’s House Museum. Engineers say planned construction next door could threaten the centuries-old home.

"The problem is, if they begin building next door, the vibrations really would bring this house down," she said. 

As the museum fights to protect the site through a letter-writing campaign to the city, Semrick remains committed to sharing its history.

"One of the things I'm most passionate about is just telling the stories of our city and getting people involved in history and knowing that history is everywhere," Semrick said.

For her dedication to preserving and sharing the city’s past, Ashley Semrick is our New Yorker of the Week.