Photo-illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty
Last Week, A Charming Little Penthouse on the Roof of 103 East 84Th Street, A Prewar Co-op Full of Classic Sixes that Trade for Around $ 2 Million, Came on the market. The place, a studio with a kitchenette and small bathroom mesurying just over 13-by-3 religies, with a private terrace, certific isn’t grand. But neohere is the asking price of $ 199,000.
What’s Such a Reasonably priced Little Penthouse doing in a doorman co-op on a prime upper side Block BetWene Park and Lexington? “There are Are a few of these apartments on the upper side that were added to the top of prewar buildings as staff quarters,” Says Miriam Flink-Herman, the Douglas Elliman Broker who Shares the listen with her colleague. “I don’t see it offten as a lot of the penthouses were tourned into Grand apartments. They all have kitchens. Its just a cute little penthouse.”
No One Thought the Roof – Hot, Dirty, Windy – was a Desirable Place During the Early Years of Living. “The Roof was a workplace for Maids doing the laundry,” Says Architecture historian Andrew Alpern. Maids in the Early-20th Century Were SO plentiful that apartments often had several rooms to host an average of three – And it is that wasn’t alway Enough. Upscale Buildings OFTEN HAD ADDITIONAL STAFF APPLICATIONS, EATHER Individual Rooms or Efficiencies Like Theses, Sometimes Dormitories with Shared Bathrooms. The staff apartments on the highest floors and the roof, offen little more than freestanding shacks back from the Edge, “Were of the Worst Built and Least Desirable,” Acciting to A 1979 New York Times Article About the Demolition and Conversion of Old Penthouses Intended for Domestic Workers.
The Status of Penthouses Changed Around 1920, Accounting to Alpern, Wen Publisher Condé Nast Convinced the Landlord of 1040 Park Avenue to Scrap the Maids’ Rooms Planned for the Roof and Incorporate into HIS Top-Floor apartment. Nast love to entertain, and his apartment eventually sprawled to 30 Rooms and a ballroom, mining the idea of pentouse living as a glamorous, cosmopolitan thing.
The Introduction of Gas Dryers Also Played A Role, Late Historian Christopher Gray Told the Times, MAKING BASEENT LAUNDRY Rooms Posible and Freeing Up Rooftops for Other Purposes. That and the Disappearans of Live-in Maids. By 1979, Maids ‘Rooms Were a Rarity in the Most High-End New Apartment Buildings, and People in Older Co-ops using Their Maids’ Rooms As Offices, Extra Bedrooms, and Stoorage Spaces. The Few Live-in Maids Who Remained, Meanwhile, Could Command Nicer Accommodations. (Henry Kissinger Reportedly Combined The Three Maids’ Rooms in His River House Into A Single Staff Suite.)
The Little Penthouse at 103 EAST 84TH is one of the FIVE in the Building, Acciting to Flink-Herman, The Broker, Two of which have been incorporated into the three-bedroom units downstairs. And there is a catch: the maintenance is $ 2,627 a month, a daunting enough sum that the seller is offering to kick in a $ 1,000-a-month subsidy for the first year. “That is the Only Drawback,” Says Flink-Herman. “Otherwise, it would have sold for a lot.” (Earlier this year, the apartment was liner for $ 375,000 before several cuts to the Current price.) In fact, she Says, the other two stand-Alone studios were once combs into a single apartment been changed back, as the maintenance was just too. The Elevator Also Stops One Floor Below the Roof, so Residents have to Climen a Flight of Stairs to Get Home. SO SO, there’s not much out there for a buyer look to spend less than $ 200,000 on a Manhattan apartment. Streeeteasy Shows 17 Studios and One-Bedrooms, Almost All Far Uptown, Almost All “Restricted Sales”-that is, HDFCs with Incoming Caps and One investor-only unit with a rent-stabilized tenant in place.
“It ‘s raare to have an Old staff room be Its apartment,” Sayys Christine Miller Martin, A Real-Estate Agent at Compass. Most were incorporated or combo-ino apartments, and the stand-alone ones that remiin are offten by Held by Other Residents in the Building-Bonus Rooms that Trade with Other Apartments. Depending on the Building and the Associated Maintenance Costs, they can be eather coveted or a hard sell.
Alpern aggreg that staff penthouses are unusual these days – the eyes that remain have far -so ben repurposed, albeit Sometimes by Other staff. At 998 fifth, for example, the super didn’t like Living in the Basement and Combined A Number of Maids’ Rooms on the Roof Into An Apartment. But he was double the penthouses at 103 east 84th were built as maids ‘quarters-the building’ three-bedroom apartments are not so grad that residents woul have Needed Space for More Live-in Maid. More Likely, he though they were original part of the apartments bellow. The original 1917 Certificate of Occupancy Notes A Pentthouse Level But No Other Details. By 1954, Five Penthouse apartments were listed. This one, phd, han ben on and off the market a number of times over the years. It LAST SOLD AN ESTATE IN 2017 FOR ABOUT THE SAME PRICE’S EXCING NOW. The Current Seller, A Connecticut Woman who used this as a pied-à-terre, is moving to manhattan full time and upgrading to a Large space. Not Surpring: This One is Just Shy of 200 Square Feet.
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