OPEN HOUSE: Sunday, August 8th, 12:00 noon-1:30 PM. The painted white, two-family home at 2107 fifth Avenue, just north of East 129th Street has been on the market about a year now and originally started at $1.79 million. The gut renovated building has a restored facade with some rather effusive stone block etching on the top half of the building but the interior is pretty straight forward. The 19 foot wide, two family building has a garden floor rental and a 4 bedroom owner's triplex. It's one of those exposed brick interiors but some of the fireplaces are still intact. Kitchen and baths are on the better side (albeit incongruous) and the house looks move-in ready. The current price at $1.285 is a little more attractive than the original price and might be more affordable to first time home buyers. This attractive, purely residential stretch of Fifth is around 6 blocks away from the 2,3 train at 125th Street. House photo by Ulysses
OPEN HOUSE: Sunday, August 8th, 12:00 noon-1:30 PM. The painted white, two-family home at 2107 fifth Avenue, just north of East 129th Street has been on the market about a year now and originally started at $1.79 million. The gut renovated building has a restored facade with some rather effusive stone block etching on the top half of the building but the interior is pretty straight forward. The 19 foot wide, two family building has a garden floor rental and a 4 bedroom owner's triplex. It's one of those exposed brick interiors but some of the fireplaces are still intact. Kitchen and baths are on the better side (albeit incongruous) and the house looks move-in ready. The current price at $1.285 is a little more attractive than the original price and might be more affordable to first time home buyers. This attractive, purely residential stretch of Fifth is around 6 blocks away from the 2,3 train at 125th Street. House photo by Ulysses
Not exactly my style but upper 5th is a beautiful area and it's a great price.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for the architecture history buffs - whenever I see these modernized townhouses that keey the fireplaces I see these types of fireplaces (with almost an arch around the firepit and looking almost like marble). Yet in the houses with the original detail intact that have the mirrors and woodwork around the fireplaces, they look totally different. Are these two types of fireplaces, or just what you get when you take the mirror and woodwork down? You can tell we have the former (intact) kind.
I find the kitchen ghastly but other than that it could be beautiful. A little wallpaper, allot of molding and some paint. This place is a blank canvas. The price seems reasonable but I’m not really familiar with East Harlem.
ReplyDeleteGreenGirl,
ReplyDeleteThe fireplace mantle in this photo looks period correct, of marble construction and aged, and the typical brick arch over the fire pit is also original, so I would assume this home to have the original mantle attached to the exposed brick chimney breast. These stone mantles are sometimes a dark color and made of slate being a less luxurious mantle but still of this period. Also popular at the time where the wooden mantles with mirrors which often survive and can be seen in these homes. However I have seen similar arrangements this photo with a brand new marble mantle that was likely purchased from marblemantles.com or similar and shipped flat packed for assembly on site. Also, these wooden, marble or slate period mantles can be purchased from salvage companies so you can never be 100% sure a renovated home has the original mantle.
and those overmantles from salvage companies cost as much as my brownstone. Green Girl, I envy you your original mirrored overmantle.
ReplyDeleteMy brownstone had been a shell and then a basic renovation—no fireplaces, no chimneys left. Put in gas fireplaces w/soffits and external vents (don’t tell Landmarks). Priced mantles/overmantles at the salvage shop on East 125 and when I regained consciousness we were headed to a fireplace shop on Staten Island.
Gas fireplaces are not a crime .... actually it's much easier to make these old fireplaces into gas than wood burning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Corey that some moldings would do wonders here ... the Central A/C also probably dropped those ceilings a couple feet (ductless is the way to go in brownstones).
But as I've said before though it's technically East Harlem it feels much more like Central Harlem.
Gas fireplaces not a crime but vents on the facade probably frowned on. Judicious and speedy application of "brownstone" spray paint covers a multitude of sins.
ReplyDeleteEast Harlem, Central Harlem. . .if I owned this building I would simply say "I have a brownstone on Fifth!"
Off to Marcus Garvey Pool!
(oh--these fireplaces too shallow for wood. They were originally gas or coal)