Listing photos by Rich Caplan
The townhouse at 75 1/2 Bedford Street has long been known as the narrowest home in all of New York City. The Greenwich Village house is just 9-feet-6-inches wide, and though some accounts say there are actually a couple skinnier buildings, this is the one that’s become famous. It’s also in part because Edna St. Vincent Millay lived here in the 1920s. Now, this truly unique home, which was built in 1873 in the Dutch style, has hit the market for $4,190,000. And despite its slender frame, it offers three bedrooms, two balconies, a rear patio, and a finished basement.
Millay lived at several different Greenwich Village addresses starting in 1917. Though she only lived at 75 1/2 Bedford Street from 1923 to 1924 (along with her husband Eugen Jan Boissevain), it’s the location most closely associated with her, and there’s even a plaque on the facade. Prior to that, the home was leased by a group of actors from the nearby Cherry Lane Theater (of which Millay was a co-founder), which included Cary Grant and John Barrymore. Local history tells us that Margaret Mead and cartoonist William Steig also spent some time here.
According to Village Preservation, the site “was originally an alley where delivery carts and the like passed through often.” In 1873, it “was constructed for Horatio Gomez, trustee of the Hettie Hendricks-Gomez Estate,” which included the 1799 house next door at 77 Bedford Street. The Dutch architectural style is unique for the neighborhood and includes an asymmetrical stepped gable and large casement windows.
Reports have said the interior of the house measures just about eight feet wide, and city records note the total square footage at 999. The first floor has a street-facing living room and a rear kitchen with custom millwork and Italian marble countertops that opens through French doors to the shared backyard.
The second floor is entirely devoted to the primary suite. The bedroom is in the front and has a fireplace and built-in closets. The en-suite bathroom opens to a rear terrace. On the upper two levels, the original ceiling beams are a beautiful addition.
There are two more bedrooms on the third floor, both with fireplaces and built-ins and one that opens to the second rear terrace. A skylight adds extra light to the top level. Not pictured is the finished basement, which has a bathroom and laundry room.
In 2013, the home was purchased for $3.25 million by real estate investor George Gund IV. In a profile in the Wall Street Journal at the time, he said he was intrigued by the house’s history and also noted that his bed took up almost the entire width of the bedroom.
