Now that the New York City schools chancellorship no longer comes with a free house, it's off our list of dream jobs. But what a house it was! This week's Appraisal column in the Times reviews the history of 80 State Street, the Brooklyn Heights brownstone the city bought for $995,000 in 1990 to persuade Joseph A. Fernandez to take the chancellor job. Subsequent chancellors didn't exactly love the place: one tells the Times it was too big and didn't have enough bathrooms, and that he lived in only two rooms on the third floor. Eventually, when another chancellor took a housing stipend instead of the brownstone, the city got the hint and sold it at auction for $2.4 million in 2003. It was flipped once, for $3.3M in 2005, and then again, for $3.895 million earlier this year. The new owners are removing the last of the home's chancellor-specific touches, but chancellor nominee Cathleen Black, who already owns Park Avenue, Connecticut, and Southampton pads, probably doesn't mind much.
· Schools Chancellor Once Had a Residential Perk [NYT]
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