The Village’s beloved pink townhouse lists as an $11M fixer-upper

Often noted for its unusual studio window and bright coral hue, the five-story townhouse at 114 Waverly Place was built in 1826 as part of a row of nine houses constructed for Thomas R. Mercein, who was at the time city comptroller and president of New York Equitable Fire Insurance Company. A dramatic overhaul in 1920 designed by William Sanger for portrait painter Murray P. Bewley is responsible for the building’s quirkier design elements, which are credited to a German Expressionist style known as Jugendstil, a mix of English Art Nouveau and Japanese applied arts. This unusual Village house is now on the market for $11 million–with a few caveats.

Architects had been transforming outdated Federal and Victorian homes into fantastical artists’ studios across town in the East Village, and William Sanger’s stucco-coated creation was impressive competition with its curved roofline, 16-foot beamed ceilings and expansive studio window. Painter Jacob Getlar Smith used the studio in the 1940s.

The entrance floor has Italianate styling, with English basement stoop and round-arched doorway and windows.

Though it will be delivered vacant according to the listing, this “once in a lifetime opportunity to gut renovate this one of a kind Village gem” does come with a few drawbacks. For one, that gut renovation will be needed, clearly. In addition “the house can only be sold with an extended closing date and a minimum down payment of 20+ % of the purchase price to be released immediately from escrow…and the terms of this guardianship sale will have to be approved by NYS court system.”

[Listing: 114 Waverly Place by Stephen Wald for Stephen P. Wald]

[At CityRealty]

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• Tracing the Disappearance of New York City’s Live/Work Artists’ Lofts

Images courtesy of Stephen P. Wald.