Maya Angelou’s Historic Harlem Brownstone Finds a Buyer for $4M
The historic Harlem brownstone of author, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou listed for $5.1 million in February, and after a drop to $4.95 million in March, it’s now found a buyer for a reduced price of $4 million, The Real Deal tells us.
Dr. Angelou purchased the four-story home, built in 1909 in the Mount Morris Park Historic District, sight unseen in 2002 to serve as her northeast residence when she wasn’t teaching at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. But she didn’t move in until 2004 (vandals had turned it into a “dilapidated shell”), when East Harlem-based architect Marc Anderson had completed a gut renovation that added contemporary amenities such as an elevator, two skylights, and a basement entertainment area, while retaining historic details like the original oak-front door, wainscoting, carved banister, and decorative fireplaces.
The 6,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home has a private garden, and Angelou’s third-floor master suite comes complete with a fireplace and large library.
After Angelou’s health began deteriorating, her home was rented out between 2013 and 2015 for around $12,000 a month. As 6sqft previously noted, prior to this, she entertained the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Cicely Tyson, and a Times article recounts this grand era:
…the brownstone once shimmered with bursts of color from the artwork Ms. Angelou had collected, and from her choice of décor. Oversize armchairs and couches in the living room on the parlor level were upholstered in bold shades of lime green, tangerine, grape and yellow — “I wanted the room to look like a bowl of summer fruit,” she said in a 2007 interview — and the dining room showcased a soffit ceiling with a painted blue sky and clouds, a feature that remains. The parlor level also once displayed a birdcage lamp, resting on a piano, a nod to her autobiographical work “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” published in 1969.
[Listing: 58 West 120th Street by Valon Nikci of Link NY Realty]
[Via TRD]
Images via Link NY Realty
