Dr. Zizmor of Subway Ad Fame Retires and Sells Bronx Mansion All in One Day
Local celebrity Dr. Jonathan Zizmor has been both charming and perplexing subway riders for decades, thanks to his dermatology ads that subtly peddle cosmetic surgery against a rainbow background. But these will soon be a thing of the past, as the Daily News reported this morning that Dr. Zizmor has officially retired and closed his Upper East Side practice. And just hours later, Curbed broke the news that the doctor’s Mediterranean Revival mansion in the Fieldston section of the Bronx has gone into contract for $3.075 million after three years on the market. (Bet you never thought you’d hear so much Dr. Zizmor news in day!)
Zizmor first listed the 7,000-foot residence in 2012 for $4.3 million. It went through several price cuts before reaching its current list price of $3.075 million. Back in 2003, Zizmor told the New Yorker that he planned to use the home for world peace. “We are going to invite people who hate each other, and they will spend a weekend together,” he said.
The home was built in 1928 by Dwight James Baum, who brought the Mediterranean Revival style up from Sarasota, Florida, where he worked on homes for the Ringling family.
It has seven bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths, and a loggia/sun room that opens to a European-style courtyard complete with a koi pond, built-in seating, play area, and “wide variety of specimen trees, shrubs and flowers,” according to the listing.
The sunken living room shows off the thick masonry, stucccoed walls (which keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter) and features one of two working fireplaces. There’s a window seat, built-in shelving nooks, beamed ceilings, and French doors that lead to the side yard.
Architectural details from the living room carry over to the very large kitchen and dining room that can seat 16.
Other rooms get the luxe treatment through gilded wallpaper, textured fabrics, and plenty of dark wood furniture.
Upstairs is the master bedroom, which is adjacent to a nursery or reading room. It has Juliet balconies that overlook the garden. Also on this floor is the children’s wing with four more bedrooms. The other two bedrooms are downstairs off the kitchen.
Despite his deft hand, Dr. Zizmor, now 70, looks much older than the photo on his subway ads. But it doesn’t seem that he’ll be entirely slowing down now that he’s retired and unloaded his mansion. He’s devoted his free time to studying the Talmud, and his realtor told the Daily News, “The Zizmors love to travel and have many social interests, hobbies, and friends. At the end of the day, they are just like the rest of us.”
[Listing: 5021 Iselin Avenue by Lee Moskof and Susan Goldy of Halstead]
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Photos via an earlier listing from Keller Williams NYC
