Report: Historic Anglo-Italianate townhouse on East 10th Street to serve as Olsen twin love nest

You know those beautiful homes at 123-125 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenues, the single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses? These.


After nearly four years on the market, Crain's reported in June that an unnamed buyer picked up the five-story, 4,200-square-foot home at No. 123 close to its asking price of $6.25 million. (No. 125 remains on the market.)

Today, Page Six reveals who bought the house: Olivier Sarkozy, who is the half-brother of the former French president as well as the beau of Olsen twin Mary-Kate.

Per Page Six, he "plans to share the palatial 146-year-old love nest with Olsen, sources said. Sarkozy is buying it because he and Olsen “like that it is old,” a real estate insider told The Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil. The 4,200-square-foot home, built the year Abraham Lincoln took office, was designed by architect James Renwick Jr., best-known for St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Smithsonian."

And!

"The sale has brokers wondering if Mary-Kate’s sister Ashley will snap up the house’s twin."

[Heh — twin]

Anyway, here's a look inside the place from a previous post. Meanwhile, we have some Photoshopping to do...

[EVG Flashback] About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

Originally posted on Sept. 24, 2008...

As you may know, New York has a great piece this week on 190 Bowery, a space that I've long been curious about. Wendy Goodman gets right to it in her lead:

The building at 190 Bowery is a mystery: a graffiti-covered Gilded Age relic, with a beat-up wooden door that looks like it hasn’t been opened since La Guardia was mayor. A few years ago, that described a lot of the neighborhood, but with the Bowery Hotel and the New Museum, the Rogan and John Varvatos boutiques, 190 is now an anomaly, not the norm. Why isn’t some developer turning it into luxury condos?

Because Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda. It isn’t a decrepit ruin; 190 Bowery is a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot (depending on how you measure) single-family home.

There's another building that I've been curious about: 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.



I was told years back that an artist lives there. Indeed.

According to Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria. His most famous installation is The Lightning Field (1977) is permanently installed in the desert at Quemado, New Mexico, and was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation, who run the site and provide accommodation for visitors. The work consists of hundreds of stainless steel rods projecting from the ground to a uniform height of around six metres (20 feet). Rows of 20 rods extend for one mile, while rows of 16 extend for a kilometre, making a square grid of standard and metric proportions. The work is designed to attract spectacular lightning strikes."

NY Songlines has a few more details: "This building, which looks like a giant-robot laboratory, was actually built in 1919-21 as a New York Edison transformer substation — turning DC current into AC. Since 1980 it's been owned by artist Walter De Maria."



Wonder if we'll ever get to see the inside of this space...

Related:
Miss Representation on 421 E. Sixth St.

Your chance to see inside a historic townhouse on East 10th Street tonight (complimentary wine alert!)

The beautiful homes at 123-125 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue have been on the market for more than three years... oh those handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses!

Here's the listing at Rubicon:

If you were to travel back in time to New York City in 1854, it would appear virtually unrecognizable. Yet, arrive at Renwick Triangle, formed by the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and East 10th Street, and it would seem as if time stood still. Of all James Renwick's masterpieces in this corridor, one stands out as more imposing and grander than the rest. Architecturally paired, 123 East 10th Street and 125 East 10th Street are now offered for sale together. At 28 feet wide, of grand scale and proportions, with approximately 8,400 square feet of interior space, and a large, terraced rear garden, this presents a new owner with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a modern home at an iconic address. Behind an exceptionally handsome facade, 5 stories tall including an English basement, this magnificent townhouse has 18 fireplaces, original moldings, detailed mantelpieces and an ornamental cast-iron "Juliet" balcony which runs the width of the building. Since this townhouse is located in the middle of the St. Mark's Historic District, the extraordinary morning light and tranquility will be forever preserved. Given the scope of this offering, Rubicon Property has created a prospectus on this residence, its history and its future, which can be furnished on request by qualified buyers or brokers

Oh, the point of bringing this up now? There is an open house at 123 E. 10th St. tonight from 6-9. With complimentary wine! (Woo!) Says a Rubicon rep: "This is a magnificent opportunity to look into a piece of history." And Rubicon donates a $1 to charity: water for every person who signs in for the open house.

And the combo houses are yours for $12.95 million.

Giant rats invading one of the nicest blocks in the East Village?

Here, on the tree-lined East 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue (oh, yes — as seen below in this photo from the summer...where Parker Posey once lived!)



...Anyway, right in the heart of the St. Mark's Historic District -- evil lurks... in the form of some bigass rats, apparently... just check out these traps...




...hope the neighborhood doesn't have a problem with stray cats too...

Great homes for sale: 1840s townhouse on East Ninth Street going for $4.3 million

One of my favorite buildings in the neighborhood has been on the market for several months now... This 1840s townhouse on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A is going for $4.3 million. Here are some listing details:

When it comes to historic houses, remember: They aren't building any more of them. This is a three-story town house with basement, 20 feet wide, built in the 1840's, with a large, leafy backyard. Period details include French doors, wide plank floors and exposed ceiling beams. Currently zoned as a 3-family home but could be configured as a 1-family or a 2-family. House is partially renovated and is currently occupied. Only 2 sales of this property in the past 75 years.

In 1998, it sold for $640,000.

Your chance to buy two historic townhouses on East 10th Street -- or create Central Village's first single-family mansion!

It's easy to like the tree-lined 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue -- right in the heart of the St. Mark's Historic District... oh those handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses!

And now not one but TWO of them can be yours...



...for $12.9 million... both 123 E. 10th St. and 125 E. 10th St. are on the market. (The owner had been selling them. Now Leslie Garfield & Co. is doing the honors... A little description...

Located on a serene tree-lined residential street in the heart of the St. Mark’s Historic District, this pair of exceptionally handsome single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses [Oh, there's where I picked up that term earlier!], rises four stories above rusticated stone “English basements.” The front parlor windows extend to the floor and open onto an ornamental cast-iron balcony that runs across the twin buildings’ brick façade, unchanged since built in 1854. Pass through the round-arch entryway of each house and you are in a world apart. Each is light and airy with beautifully detailed moldings and mantelpieces; there is a total of eighteen (18) fireplaces and in the rear, a shared idyllic garden. Bring your architect to create the Central Village’s first 28’-wide single-family mansion. Also available individually for $6,475,000 each.

About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

As you may know, New York has a great piece this week on 190 Bowery, a space that I've long been curious about. Wendy Goodman gets right to it in her lead:

The building at 190 Bowery is a mystery: a graffiti-covered Gilded Age relic, with a beat-up wooden door that looks like it hasn’t been opened since La Guardia was mayor. A few years ago, that described a lot of the neighborhood, but with the Bowery Hotel and the New Museum, the Rogan and John Varvatos boutiques, 190 is now an anomaly, not the norm. Why isn’t some developer turning it into luxury condos?

Because Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda. It isn’t a decrepit ruin; 190 Bowery is a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot (depending on how you measure) single-family home.

There's another building that I've been curious about: 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.



I was told years back that an artist lives there. Indeed.

According to Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria. His most famous installation is The Lightning Field (1977) is permanently installed in the desert at Quemado, New Mexico, and was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation, who run the site and provide accommodation for visitors. The work consists of hundreds of stainless steel rods projecting from the ground to a uniform height of around six metres (20 feet). Rows of 20 rods extend for one mile, while rows of 16 extend for a kilometre, making a square grid of standard and metric proportions. The work is designed to attract spectacular lightning strikes."

NY Songlines has a few more details: "This building, which looks like a giant-robot laboratory, was actually built in 1919-21 as a New York Edison transformer substation — turning DC current into AC. Since 1980 it's been owned by artist Walter De Maria."



Wonder if we'll ever get to see the inside of this space...

Related:
Miss Representation on 421 E. Sixth St.