One of NYC's Largest Gilded Age Mansions to Return For $65M

Two turn-of-the-century brick and limestone mansions that were built together on one of the city's widest lots are coming to market have come to market in a single $65 million listing. Known as the James J. Goodwin house after its proprietor—the owner of the Erie Railroad and two insurance companies, and cousin of J. Pierpont Morgan—the two houses were built by McKim Mead and White of original Penn Station fame in 1898, the Journal explains. The buildings haven't served as a private residence since the early 1930's, but can either continue on as a commercial property, or be returned to its original use.

For the past 80-some years, Goodwin's mansion and smaller guest house have served as headquarters for the Inter-America House, the Rhodes Preparatory School, the United States Trust Company of New York, and various banking institutions. After the buildings' rough-and-tumble days as home to the all boys Rhodes prep school, the U.S. Trust Company restored much of the buildings' damaged original details in a renovation guided by original architectural drawings for the house. As per the Journal,

Fluted wood columns were carved from solid German oak, because American oak at the time didn't match the original. Scrapes of old wallpaper were found and used to recreate original flocked wall coverings...There are carved acorns on the stairs, intricate plaster designs on the ceilings and pillars at the entry and stair landings. Because of the buildings' former use as banking headquarters, they come with two vaults—excessive in size by normal people standards—that are being marketed as an amenity to financial types.

If the two houses are combined into the "low-rise, more human-scale alternative to the high-price megatowers under development in the area" they're being marketed as, the building will become one of the city's largest mansions at 50 feet wide and 22,500 square feet. It'll be larger, even, than Carlos Slim's Fifth Avenue mansion now on the market for $80 million. The Journal points out that even with its $65 million price tag, the price per square foot works out to about $2,900, which is peanuts compared to the $9,000-plus per square foot apartments in the city's new supertalls just north on 57th Street.
· For Sale: a Gilded Age Mansion in Manhattan [WSJ]
· Listing: 9-11 West 54th Street [Corcoran]
· The 1986 James Goodwin House [Daytonian in Manhattan]
· Looking Back at Manhattan's Lost Gilded Age Mansions [Curbed]
· Here's a Map of NYC Nonprofits Turning Into Luxury Housing [Curbed]