It is an amazing 9 1/2 feet (2.74 meters) wide and 42 feet (12.8 meters) long and is billed as the narrowest house in New York City. But there’s nothing small about its asking price: $2.7 million. Located at 75 1/2 Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, the red brick building was built in 1873, sandwiched in a narrow space that used to be an alley between homes at 75 and 77 Bedford.
The narrow house is considered a curiosity and is one of the neighborhood’s most photographed homes. A small plaque on the house notes that poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived there; so did anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Real estate broker Alex Nicholas says there is interest in the property and he has appointments on Thursday to show the home to three different potential buyers. The residential interiors are a tight squeeze even by New York standards, measuring just 8 1/2 feet (2.44 meters) wide and 42 feet (12.8 meters) long on each of its three floors.
“Due to the narrowness of the house, I think you have to be very clever in how you decorate,” Nicholas said. The current owners bought the house for $1.6 million in 2000.
The broker’s Web site describes it as a vertical suite, with a kitchen, dining room and parlor on the first floor, a double living room on the second floor and a top-floor master bedroom suite. A trapdoor in the kitchen floor leads to a finished basement.
Large windows in the front and back of the house and a garret skylight, plus a small backyard garden, give it “an airiness, a sense of light and charm,” Nicholas said. He predicted the property will fetch its listed price due to its uniqueness, history and location in one of the city’s most famous preserved neighborhoods. New York certainly is the craziest place in the USA!
