French-inspired townhouse asks $8.5M on Sutton Place

This $8.5 million townhouse at 19 Sutton Place boasts an interesting backstory dating to the 1920s. The home–like most others in the area–was built as an unassuming brownstone in the late 1800s. In 1920, the wealthy literary agent Elisabeth Marbury, with her partner Elsie de Wolfe, a well-known decorator, moved to the block and hired an architect to transform a nearby townhouse into a neo-Georgian townhouse. Millionaires followed suit, moving in and redesigning the homes of Sutton Place. At 19 Sutton, banker B. Stafford Mantz transformed the brownstone into a “provincial Louis XVI townhouse of grey and brown brick” according to Daytonian in Manhattan. And today, the interior boasts elegant spaces with high ceilings, five wood-burning fireplaces, and its own elevator.

The full-floor great room occupies the parlor level. The space is decorated with a fireplace and bay windows, which line the back of the home and overlook the private back garden.

The dining room is situated up front, lined with three large windows with views of the ironwork that decorate the exterior of the home. The kitchen and a casual family room are located on the garden floor.

The master suite occupies the entire third floor. Lined with bay windows, it’s also adjacent to a sitting room/office and master bathroom.

The fourth floor holds three more bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The fifth-floor family room and library are the showpiece of the home. A mezzanine overhead, lined with shelving, looks down onto the fireplace and parquet floors. Double height ceilings provide a perfect backdrop for artwork.

You can see the amount of work that went into the facade redesign–a high mansard roof was added, plus a limestone-framed main entrance with a carved Medusa-head keystone. Ironwork decorates the second floor, while rows of identical French windows were placed up to the stone cornice. As Daytonian in Manhattan called it, “a romantic French country townhouse hidden away from noise and traffic of Manhattan.”

[Listing: 19 Sutton Place by Carrie Chang for the Corcoran Group]

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Photos courtesy of the Corcoran Group