On Friday, word spread that a three-story apartment carved out of the once-quintuplex penthouse owned by the late newspaper magnate and real estate mogul William Randolph Hearst was coming to market with an ask of $38 million. And lo, it has arrived. Brown Harris Stevens has the full listing, complete with a whopping six paragraphs of brokerbabble, more photos, and the bonkers floorplan. The magnate bought the entire Clarendon building at 137 Riverside Drive in 1913 for the Six-Digit Club price of $950,000an extravagant sum in those days. At its apex, Hearst built a 100-foot long medieval tapestry gallery that "featured suits of armor, stained glass windows and art taken from European palaces. Other rooms, the Greek Room, English Room and the Julius Caesar Room, were lavishly appointed in the style their names suggest."
When the boom times subsided and the Depression hit, Hearst foreclosed on the apartment, and his grand aerie got chopped into smaller units. But the part of Hearst's palace for sale right now still pretty darn large, with seven bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, and 17 rooms total across 7,000 square feet. We'll let the brokerbabble spin a yarn:
Entering the reception hall from the private elevator landing, the impression of tremendous scale and natural light which characterized the original Hearst Penthouse can be immediately felt in the soaring ceiling heights and extraordinary open views of the Hudson River. The grand living room with fireplace opens to a south-facing terrace which also connects to the kitchen. Along the western wall, the living room, which can be configured to accommodate a large dining room table as well, leads to a beautifully appointed library with custom shelving and Hudson River views. The library could also be converted to a formal dining room. Facing west and north, the palatial master bedroom suite includes a full bath, large walk-in closet, dressing room, as well as dramatic northern views as the George Washington Bridge and the Soldiers and Sailors monument. There are four terraces (some massive) across the three levels, plus there are little details like a skylight. The furnishings may not be Hearst-level anymorethough keep in mind that current owner Benedict Silverman, Real Estalker notes, is a vaunted art and furniture collector, and the pad apparently appeared in Architectural Digest over a decade ago. Any buyer of this blockbuster, though, would be salivating not at the staging but at the space, the views, and the provenance. It's a co-op, so steel yourself for those monthly maintenance charges of $9,687.
· W. R. Hearst's 7,000-Sq-Foot Clarendon Manse To Ask $38M [Curbed]
· Listing: 137 Riverside Drive - $38,000,000 [BHS via StreetEasy]
· The Old W.R. Hearst Penthouse in NYC Officially Lists for $38 Million [Real Estalker]
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