75½ Bedford Street
75 1/2 Bedford Street | West Village | built 1873
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1873
A house is built in a former carriage entrance, 9½ feet wide
The house was built in 1873 for Horatio Gomez, trustee of the Hettie Hendricks-Gomez Estate, on the former carriage entranceway of the neighboring property. It is 9 feet 6 inches wide on the outside and 8 feet 7 inches inside, and is often described as the narrowest house in New York. It is not an individual landmark but lies within the Greenwich Village Historic District.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1880
A candy shop and a cobbler occupy the ground floor of the skinny house
When the narrow house was new, its ground floor held shop space with living rooms above. At one point a cobbler worked there, and in 1880 a candy shop did business in the 9½-foot-wide storefront.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1923
Edna St. Vincent Millay moves into the narrow house
The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband, coffee importer Eugen Jan Boissevain, lived here from 1923 to 1924. They hired Ferdinand Savignano to renovate it; he added a skylight, turned the top floor into a studio for Millay and added a Dutch-inspired gabled front. Later occupants included cartoonist William Steig and anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
Ferdinand Savignano remakes the house for Edna St. Vincent Millay
After the poet and her husband, coffee importer Eugen Boissevain, move in, they hire architect Ferdinand Savignano to renovate the narrow rowhouse. He adds a skylight, turns the top floor into a painting studio for Millay, and gives the front a Dutch-inspired gabled facade for Boissevain.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1952
A lawyer buys the skinny house to save it from corner redevelopment and moves in
In 1952 the Bedford Street corner was slated for development, and the old buildings there faced demolition years before preservation rules existed. To save the narrow house, the lawyer Kenneth Carroad bought it and moved his family in. By 1996, when a family member sold it, it had been empty and neglected.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1980
Ann McGovern's children's book Mr. Skinner's Skinny House is inspired by the building
The narrow house was the inspiration for Mr. Skinner's Skinny House, a 1980 children's book by Ann McGovern. Billed as the narrowest house in New York, it draws cameras from tourists and locals alike, although the inside measures only 8 feet 7 inches across.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1996
Christopher Dubs and Cedric Wilson buy the neglected house for $270,000 and restore it
When a Carroad family member sold the house in 1996 for $270,000, its staircase was dangerously unstable and urgent repairs were needed. The new owners, Christopher Dubs and Cedric Wilson, spent nearly as much on repairs as on the purchase. The house stands in the Greenwich Village Historic District, so any replacement brick had to match the period or look identical to the originals.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2010
The skinny house sells for $2.7 million and gets a sleek modern interior
In 2000 Dubs sold the house for $1.6 million, and it changed hands again in January 2010 for $2.7 million. A year-long renovation then produced ultra-modern interiors, and the house was relisted in 2011 at $4.3 million, a steep rise for a building that once filled a carriage drive.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2013
George Gund IV buys the narrow house for $3.25 million
In June 2013, George Gund IV, son of sports entrepreneur George Gund III, purchases 75½ Bedford Street, New York's narrowest house at nine and a half feet wide, for $3.25 million.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 75½ Bedford StreetWikipedia
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