Stately Murray Hill townhouse with ties to Time and Harper’s magazines lists for $4.5M
Listing photos courtesy of Douglas Elliman
This stately Murray Hill townhouse was once home to famed commercial artist Birney A. Lettick, whose illustrations often graced the cover of Time magazine. In fact, his original studio remains intact. In the early 1950s, it was owned by Frederick Lewis Allen, then the editor of Harper’s Magazine. Located at 121 East 35th Street, the home was built in 1856 and has five bedrooms and a garden-level apartment. It’s on the market for $4,495,000.
The entrance is on the parlor floor, where there’s a street-facing front room and a rear dining room, which opens to a balcony that then leads down to the garden. In total, the home spans 3,920 square feet and is full of original details like moldings, wood floors, and eight wood-burning fireplaces.
A galley kitchen is located off the dining room.
On the second floor, the grand staircase leads to an equally grand center gallery. At the front, there’s a living room, and at the rear, a den.
There are two bedrooms each on the third and fourth floors.
The garden-level apartment is not pictured, but it has one bedroom, a small kitchen, and a rear living room that opens directly to the garden. As the listing notes, the home “lends itself to both single-family use as well as live-with-income by utilizing the garden floor apartment and two-family zoning.”
According to the Murray Hill Historic District designation report, this home was built with its neighbor, number 119, in 1856 by developer George Linford. Since the lot was 28 feet wide, Linford decided to construct two 14-foot-wide townhouses instead of the standard 25-foot-wide house. The first resident of number 121 was attorney Francis Byrne.
Birney Lettick passed away at the age of 67 in 1986 while at this home. His wife Gail (who owns an antique store in Woodbury, Connecticut) sold the house in 2004 for $2,995,000.
[Listing: 121 East 35th Street by Christopher Riccio, Elana Zinoman, and John Gomes of Douglas Elliman]
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Listing photos courtesy of Douglas Elliman
