Saturday, May 29, 2010

☞ DWELL: 17 East 128th Street Townhouse



OPEN HOUSE: Sunday, May 30th, 2:00-3:00 PM by Appointment. The civil-war era fantasy of a house at 17 East 128th Street just recently got a major price chop. First on the market back in September 2008 with the asking price of $2.35 million, the renovated wood frame house would stick around for a year until the listing was removed from the market in November 2009. The 3 story, 22 foot wide, 4,000 square foot (?), 9 bedroom, 4 bath, single family house was then listed earlier this year at $1.795 million. The area is just east of 5th Avenue in a particularly quiet, albeit not eventful part of town. Has anyone seen it? Thoughts? This has to be set up by the broker for those who are interested: LINK. House photo by Ulysses

21 comments:

  1. "The area is just east of 5th Avenue in a particularly quiet, albeit not eventful part of town."

    Ulysses,

    This is 1 1/2 blocks off Lenox ave, 3 blocks off 125th, and some of the best transportation in NYC and it's an uneventful part of town? You're joking, right?
    The exterior of the house is simply amazing. This is the first time I'm seeing the interior. It's a unique and charming home. Belongs in Brooklyn Heights.

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  2. There are plenty of shops in the vicinity of this home: everything from Madison Avenue to Lenox Avenue from 125th -128th is within a 5 minute walk. I don't quite understand the "not eventful part of town" statement made here.

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  3. If it's such a great area, then why the major price reduction?

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  4. -"I don't quite understand the "not eventful part of town" statement made here."

    if you pay attention this blog has a SOHA superiority complex. if it ain't in SoHa it's marginalized (as in this case in language), if it is in SOHA, it can be a dump but it's pumped up and the greatest thing since sliced bread.

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  5. While I don't agree that this blog is biased, it's nice to see people stick up for the High Five district where this lovely home is located. Perhaps the advent of The Red Rooster will be an event of enough magnitude to affect Ulysses' choice of words? After all, great restaurants seem to be the source of much of the respect shown to south Harlem.

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  6. Oh brother, here we go again. Another HB reader pointed this out just a few days ago and I've also noticed how it's becoming a huge nuisance.

    Despite equal blogging - accolades and critiques alike - that Ulysses posts about North, South, Central, East and West Harlem there's always this one reader (most of the Anon posts above) that brings up South Harlem, even if the post has absolutely nothing to do with South Harlem!

    He gets all bent out of shape when something nice is mentioned about a business or property that happens to be located in South Harlem and by the same token always takes issue when there's a slightly less than favorable comment about a business or property located in North, East, West or Central Harlem. Making the argument over and over and over again that HB is a SoHapremacist. It's always the same person and he always manages to spoil perfectly good healthy conversation threads. The kind of derailment that is so prevalent in Curbed. He has absolutely nothing to contribute and sounds like a broken record.

    I think this blog equally covers all recent activities of Harlem real estate, architecture and businesses. Here's a concept, start your own happy blog and dedicate it to the four streets that border your apartment and no matter what news of the day - favorable, unfavorable or neutral observation, make sure each page has blissful smiley faces and butterflies flashing in and out. Then, name it something like 'I'm Not a Sour Boy Regretting a Really Bad Investment Decision' and call it a day.

    Going forward I'm going to call this annoying Anon poster out and label him 'Mr. Sour.' I invite all other loyal Harlem Bespoke loving readers do the same. My goal is not to contribute Curbed style nonsense behavior but to curb the nuisance postings a little until Mr. Sour falls silent on his idiotic paranoid and disruptive SoHapremacist theory.

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  7. 10:58 - I hear you, but would not dismiss the argument entirely....there may be unconscious bias.

    If this house falls within the "High Five" area (from where to where?)then it's among the best parts of Harlem....so, I don't get the seemingly negative-ish comment.

    That being said this blog is a good source of Harlem info, covering varies areas, and all are entitled to their opinion/feelings.

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  8. I don't know what all that other commentary is about, all I can say about that home is - if I only had an extra million bucks (and a lot of free time). The place is beautiful.

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  9. zLister,

    The annoying "Anon" you are referring to seems to be more than 1 person. I posted the first comment and only that one comment. Therefore, we can conclude that there is more than 1 anon. Maybe 2, 3; who knows?

    What we do know is that this issue has been raised on more than one occasion by more than 1 person. Thus, giving the argument that anything east of Lenox and north of 125th is an "uneventful part of town" validity.

    Anyone who resides in this uneventful part of town has the RIGHT to defend its eventfulness, no?

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  10. We are looking to buy uptown and have looked in this area. Some nice housing stock but desolate on this block. For the money, looking for something closer to amenities.

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  11. "The annoying "Anon" you are referring to seems to be more than 1 person. I posted the first comment and only that one comment. Therefore, we can conclude that there is more than 1 anon. Maybe 2, 3; who knows? "~ Anon 5/30 11:08.

    Nice try Sour Boy. Since somebody already called you out on it here as well as another Harlem blog, you needed a plan. So, you created Anon 11:08, Anon 1:15 and Anon 2:48. How sad. Really sad. I will have to agree with the other poster. You suffer from high real estate insecurity issues.

    It's one thing to stick up for your right to defend the qualities of your neighborhood. It's an entirely different thing to derail threads time and time again if it praises anything that doesn't immediately surround your nest. You're creating issues where there are none.

    Find a hobby. My apologies to Harlem Bespoke for dragging this out further because I know this only adds to the nuisance but it just irks me that people can be so petty and insecure. You ruin the reading experience for us all.

    Now, getting back on track...what a breathtakingly charming facade!

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  12. zLister, all well and good, but you're avoiding the whole point and issue of debate, the blogger clearly marginalized the property in language. That's what you did not speak to.

    By any standard it's an invalid characterization, so a reader can only ponder as to the blogger's motivation.

    What if for example an UES or UWS blogger used the same exact language in describing 119th and Lenox or 114th and FDB or or Mt Morris Park or one of the heralded and beloved corners of SOHA. The SOHA crowd around here would be up in arms and ready to fight.

    Look, the blogger chose to marginalize the area in a way they have never marginalized the SOHA areas that are far lesser and remote to transportation and amenities.

    It's perfectly fine for a blog to claim no bias and be biased, heck, Fox News is "Fair and Balanced", right? Sure it is, in the same way this Blog is "Fair and Balanced" and not at all Biased toward all things SOHA. No, not this blog, no way! lol.

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  13. Please. Harlem Bespoke is a personal blog. Ulysses does a wonderful job of writing about Harlem -north, east, south, west and central. His requirement to treat all parts of Harlem the same is equal to your subscription cost to the blog. Exactly zero.

    I don't see any bias in what he writes about. What I do see is a work of love as he discovers the history of Harlem, profiles new and ongoing businesses, highlights real estate listings, etc. Nobody else even comes close to the great coverage of Harlem that Ulysses gives to us readers.

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  14. Zlister,

    It's clearly obvious that you're from " SOhA. "

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  15. Jeeze, y’all. Firstly, some of y’all seem to have far too much time on your hands.

    Secondly, or perhaps firstly, unless you’ve lived on your block since you were born y’all sound pretty damn ridiculous getting all territorial. Ulysses does a wonderful job with this blog—relax and enjoy it.

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  16. Sanou's Mum, agreed.

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  17. Agree, Sanou's Mom. Re: High Five district, the person who first used this term with me described it as "125th to 135th, crossing Lenox, 5th and Madison Avenues," a really nice part of Central Harlem. Nice moniker for upper 5th Ave.,in general, I think. I like it, so I'm using it.

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  18. All this bickering makes Harlem look so bad. Let's not try to marginalize the different areas. All parts of Harlem seem quite different and have something to offer.

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  19. "High Five"? That's as bad, if not worse than "SOHA" ;)

    To be fair, Ulysses isn't exactly slamming the place. A lot of energy being wasted here on irrelevant details. Go and volunteer for Mt. Morris Park or something.

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  20. I like High Five. Better than just a copy of Soho.

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  21. Thanks so much for posting this! I have been interested in getting more information on bell - 128 street. If anyone knows anything about this, please let me know! Thanks again!!

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