Upper East Side Penthouse With Robber Baron Ties Asks $5.5M

Built by the grandson of railroad-developing robber baron Jay Gould in 1927, the Romanesque co-op building at 160 East 72nd Street has a storied history—not the least of which centers around the building's penthouse, which has returned, at least in part, for $5.45 million. The penthouse, originally a triplex, was built out as the home of Kingdon Gould, with 20 rooms, eight baths, a double-height music room, and a private squash-tennis court. The penthouse has since been paired down from its heyday—it now only occupies the 16th floor, and the squash-tennis court has been converted—but is still impressive in its own right with 14-foot ceilings in the living room, two wood-burning and one decorative fireplace, and a terrace that wraps around the apartment's north, south, and east exposures. The co-op is in need of some TLC, and a price-chop from its October 2014 ask of $7.25 million lets on that it might need more than meets the eye. But the penthouse, magnificent at once, still has a lot of promise.

· Listing: 160 East 72nd Street [Elliman via StreetEasy]
· A Historical Sleeper, On So Many Levels [NYT]
· $7.25M Upper East Side Penthouse Used To Be a Squash-Tennis Court [Curbed]
· All 160 East 72nd Street coverage [Curbed]
· On the Market archives [Curbed]