While it may not be to everyone’s taste, the house’s history as part of a family compound is highly unusual in Manhattan, as Christopher Gray noted in a 2009 Times column. (Of the handful of collections that were built, for the Phelps, Dodge, and Brokaw families, for example, only a few remain). It bears a resemblance to the Woolworth building in Tribeca — hardly a coincidence as both the skyscraper and the three sisters’ houses were designed by Cass Gilbert, and built at the same time as the Woolworth building. No. 4 was built for daughter Helena McCann, while the more austere marble houses on either side belonged to her sisters, Edna Hutton and Jesse Donahue. But Donahue’s house, No. 6, is considered by many to be the most attractive, leading to a rumor that she was the favorite daughter, although it was clearly McCann who shared her father’s taste in architecture.
Most recently, the house belonged to Lucille Roberts, founder of the women’s-only sports clubs, who bought it from the Young Men’s Philanthropic League for $6 million in 1995. (It was, apparently, being used as a men’s gym at the time.) During her renovation, Roberts put a gym and sauna on the sixth floor (getting up there must have been a workout in itself, though there is an elevator), and lived there until her death in 2003. Her family has been trying to sell it since 2011, periodically dropping the price, renting it out, and relisting it. Even the rental price dropped, from $210,000 in March 2011, when it first listed, to $80,000 in 2021.
|
|
|
We want your photos of Election Night from wherever you are!
Send us your celebration photos and street-scene reactions as the election results roll in: big gatherings, house watch parties, unconventional locations, your commute, a corner store, your bed — help us show all the ways NYC follows and reacts to the election. iPhone photos are encouraged.
Send submissions in real time with your name and a brief caption describing where you are and what you saw to nycelection@nymag.com.
We'll be posting images throughout Election Night and into the next day. By submitting, you are agreeing to these terms. |
|
|
The Stranger Things actor just listed the one-bedroom near Union Square for $1.6 million. |
| |
|
In two museum projects, David Adjaye returns post-scandal with his characteristic, neo-brutalist swagger. |
| |
|
The decommissioned boat, inoperable on its own, was towed around the harbor as part of a Nike ad campaign. |
| |
|
| Sign up for a weekly newsletter about New York. Sign up to get it every Thursday. |
|
|
https://link.nymag.com/oc/5ff58865b78dc15bc5529564p7ipu.j8t/7ac6a756
|
|
|
|
