a truly terrific new york listing

A Three-Bedroom With 18-Foot Ceilings in the West 67th Street Artists’ Colony

Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group

On West 67th Street, right by Central Park, there’s a cluster of prewar limestone-anchored co-ops, all built in the early 1900s and all originally designed for artists to live in and work out of. Most of these seven buildings — the most prominent of which is probably the Hotel des Artistes, where Norman Rockwell and Alexander Woollcott once lived — each have at least a dozen massive duplexes with double-height north-facing windows and carved staircases. And though the so-called West 67th Street Artists’ Colony Historic District comprises nearly 350 apartments in total (including smaller single-level apartments), the duplexes with two-story windows rarely come on the market. Right now, there are only five such duplexes listed across the seven buildings, including this three-bedroom in the Central Park Studios, where only a couple of similar units have been sold in the past decade.

One of two floor-through units occupying the third and fourth floors, the apartment revolves around an enormous living and dining area with 18-foot ceilings, two-story casement windows facing north, a hulking original wood-burning fireplace with a carved-granite mantel, and wrought-iron chandeliers. There’s also an over-19-foot-long formal library (with a full wall of built-in bookshelves and another original fireplace) that’s connected to an even larger caramel-colored kitchen, which has storage on all four sides, a vintage Chambers wall oven (plus newer Viking and Sub-Zero appliances), floral floor and wall tile, and a center island with a built-in toaster.

Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group

The upstairs’ three bedrooms (all carpeted in beige) and two full baths are much more private, connected by narrow hallways that meet at a mezzanine overlooking the lower level. The listing describes this space as a “music balcony.”

The current owner is a philanthropist who likes to throw fundraisers at home. One night, fundraising for London’s Royal Court Theatre, they managed to fit the entire cast of Amadeus into the apartment (the play was on Broadway at the time). There were, they say, no lights on, only candles — a string quartet played Mozart from the music balcony.

Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
Photo: Courtesy of The Corcoran Group
A Grand Duplex in the West 67th Street Artists’ Colony