40°43′53″N74°00′18″W / 40.73137°N 74.00503°W /40.73137; -74.00503
75½ Bedford Street is a house located in theWest Village neighborhood ofNew York City that is only 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 meters) wide. Built in 1873, it is often described as the narrowest house in New York.[1] Its past tenants have includedEdna St. Vincent Millay, authorAnn McGovern, cartoonistWilliam Steig and anthropologistMargaret Mead.[1][2][3] It is sometimes referred to as the Millay House, indicated by a plaque on the outside of the house.[4] The house is located in theGreenwich Village Historic District, but is not an individually designated New York City Landmark.[5]
The three-story house is located at 75½ Bedford Street, between Commerce and Morton Streets, not far from Seventh Avenue South in the West Village section ofManhattan.[4] TheNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considers it the city's narrowest townhouse.[1][4] On the inside, the house measures 8 feet 7 inches (2.62 m) wide; at its narrowest, it is only 2 feet (0.61 m) wide.[1]
According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the archives of theGreenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the house was constructed in 1873 during a smallpox epidemic, for Horatio Gomez, trustee of the Hettie Hendricks-Gomez Estate, on what was the formercarriage entranceway for the adjacent property,[1] which includes the adjacent 1799 house at 77 Bedford Street, built by Joshua Isaacs,[3] the oldest house in Greenwich Village. However, the house may have been constructed earlier, as the style that appears in a 1922 photograph at theNew-York Historical Society is typical of the 1850sItalianate architecture common in the area at the time.[3]
In 1923, the house was leased by a consortium of artists who used it for actors working at the nearbyCherry Lane Theater.Cary Grant andJohn Barrymore stayed at the house while performing at the Cherry Lane[4] during this time.Edna St. Vincent Millay, thePulitzer Prize winning poet, and her new husband, coffee importer Eugen Jan Boissevain, lived in the house from 1923 to 1924. They hired Ferdinand Savignano to renovate the house. He added a skylight, transformed the top floor into a studio for Millay and added a Dutch-inspired front gabled façade for her husband.[3]
Later occupants included cartoonistWilliam Steig and his sister-in-law, anthropologistMargaret Mead. The house was the inspiration the children's bookMr Skinner's Skinny House,[6] written by former residentAnn McGovern and illustrated byMort Gerberg. George Gund IV, son of sports entrepreneurGeorge Gund III, purchased the house for $3.25 million in June 2013.[4]
The external dimensions of the house are approximately 9.5 by 42 feet (2.9 by 12.8 m), on a lot that is 80 feet (24 m) deep, while the internal dimensions vary between 2 and 8.5 feet (0.61 and 2.59 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m) deep.[1][3] City records list the house as 999 square feet (92.8 m2).[4]
The exterior features a stepped gable similar to those seen in the Dutch architectural tradition.[7] Inside, "[a] centrally placed spiral staircase dominates all three floors and bisects the space into two distinct living areas. The narrow steps call for expert sideways navigational skills. Under the stairwell on the first floor is a tiny utility closet, the only closed storage space in the house. All three floors have fireplaces".[1] An arched doorway leads to the shared garden in the rear.[7][1] The house has two bathrooms, and its galley kitchen comes with a microwave built into the base of the winding staircase that rises to the upper floors.[4]
Although popularly known as the narrowest house in New York, according toThe Wall Street Journal "... a search of [New York] city tax records suggests that several residential buildings may be smaller. The tax files list a 9-foot-wide house that shares a lot with a larger house on East 27th Street in Manhattan, and a corner building inGreenpoint in Brooklyn with an office on the ground floor listed at just under 8 feet".[4]
Media related toEdna St. Vincent Millay House at Wikimedia Commons