SKINNIEST HOUSE IN NYC SELLS FOR FAT PRICE: OVER $2MM

Built in 1973, this historic 2 bedroom 2 bath house located in a protected historic district recently sold for $2.1MM.  The house is 42’ long and 9 ½’ wide, a total of 990 sq ft.  The address is 75 ½ Bedford Street, where the building is squeezed into an alley between 75 and 77 Bedford Street, between Commerce and Moore Streets in Greenwich Village. 

It was built on the former carriage entranceway (with stables to the rear). The interior features:

·        a trapdoor in the kitchen floor leading to a finished basement; in the rear kitchen, there is a wooden counter with a compact sink, some stools, four mini burners lined up flush against a wall, a refrigerator and cupboards; the kitchen enjoys abundant natural sunlight that radiates through a wall of windows

·        the first and second floors feature floor-to-ceiling French doors that open onto a tree-shaded back yard shared with neighbors. 

·        the third floor has a garret skylight and oversized windows, giving the house a great deal of natural light

·        construction is brick

·        A centrally placed spiral staircase dominates all three floors and bisects the space into two distinct living areas. The narrow steps call for expert sideways navigational skills. Under the stairwell on the first floor is a tiny utility closet, the only closed storage space in the house

·        All three floors have fireplaces.

·        An overloaded metal coat rack is next to the two-seater sofa in the front parlor;  in the rear kitchen, there is a wooden counter with a compact sink, some stools, four mini burners lined up flush against a wall, a refrigerator and cupboards.

·        A French door gives access to a leafy garden; to the right is an arched black iron gate, which exits onto Commerce St.

·        Both the second- and third-floor rear rooms (office and bedroom, respectively) feature glass and wooden doors that open wide onto a sturdy U-shaped iron balcony that overlooks the garden.

·        the third-floor front constitutes the storage area: one wall of shelves and a hanging bar along another wall

In its early years, 75 1/2 Bedford was used as a cobbler’s shop and then a candy factory. Edna St. Vincent Millay was a former resident.  In the 1920’s an artists group lived there, who established the Cherry Lane Theater around the corner at 38 Commerce St. and converted the three contiguous buildings into apartments in order to rent them out.  In the 1930s, the cartoonist William Steig, his wife and her sister, anthropologist Margaret Mead, lived in the house.  It is said that actors John Barrymore and Cary Grant also briefly lived there.