After more than two years, Hudson Heights’ cliffside ‘Pumpkin House’ sells for $2M
Back in 2016, 6sqft reported that the iconic “Pumpkin House,” a 1920s townhouse cantilevered from a cliff in Hudson Heights, had hit the market for the first time since 2011 for $5.25 million. Still without a buyer the following summer, the 17-foot-wide, six-bedroom brick home at 16 Chittenden Avenue received a price chop to $4.25 million. The unusual home—standing 250 feet above the Henry Hudson Parkway—finally found its new owner this Thursday, when it sold for a deeply discounted $2 million, as reported by the New York Post.
The Pumpkin House in 1934 (L) and 1938 (R) via NYPL
As the Wall Street Journal reported in 2010, the Pumpkin House was built in the 1920s “on a steel foundation sunk into a steep cliff at West 186th Street” and was “commissioned by Cleveland Walcutt, an engineer, on land purchased from the estate of James Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald.” As seen in the photos above, it originally stood completely on its own, until Castle Village was built around it in the 1930s. Walcutt ended up foreclosing on the house in 1927. The house went on to have four owners up until its 2000 sale.
Built around 1925, the house was purchased in 2000 for $1.1 million by interior decorator William Spink. After doing a significant amount of structural renovation, he listed it for $3.45 million in 2005, but after failing to sell, tried again in 2010 for $3.9 million. It sold in 2011 and stayed off the market until it was relisted in 2016.
The 3,144-square-foot house is comprised of a main residence on the top two floors and a one-bedroom rental apartment below. The parlor floor has a bright living room with oversized windows on three sides, coffered ceilings, mahogany-paneled walls, an original marble mantle, and a balcony that provides panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, the George Washington Bridge, the Palisades, and the Tappan Zee Bridge.
A formal dining room also maintains the original coffered ceilings and ornate picture moldings. There’s also a bookshelf-lined library and a refurbished “French country” kitchen.
The bedrooms are upstairs along with a roof terrace that spans the entire length of the house and offers more incredible views. A two-car attached garage accessible through a secluded secret garden offers private parking.
[Via New York Post]
RELATED:
- 1920s Hudson Heights cliffside ‘Pumpkin House’ chops price to $4.25M
- Hudson Heights’ Famed Cliffside ‘Pumpkin House’ Returns for $5.3M
- $1.6M Washington Heights row house is on a hidden historic street across from Manhattan’s oldest home
Images courtesy of Sotheby’s
