It’s hardly surprising that a piece of Soho real estate would be hitting the market with a multi-million dollar asking price—plenty of properties have listed in the neighborhood for that high a price. But, as the New York Post reports, a patch of land for sale has a slightly, uh, creepier bent: a crypt at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street will become available for $7 million.
The burial ground, one of only a few remaining in Manhattan, is a bit of a hidden … well, gem is maybe the wrong word, but it’s a really fascinating historical site. Frank Alfieri, the church’s director, told the Post that "a lot of people don’t realize what is just below their feet," both in terms of the crypt itself and its storied past. Among its most notable residents is General Thomas Eckert, once a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and Monsignor Nicola Marinacci, who became the most recent person to be interred there when he passed in 2014.
Though those who were buried in the crypts historically had to be of the Catholic persuasion, the church is willing to open up the $7 million burial spot to anyone who can pony up the astronomical asking price.
This isn’t the first pricey real estate dealing (of a kind) that the church has engaged in recently: In 2013, it sold the building that formerly housed a school and orphanage to developer Hamlin Ventures, which tapped Marvel Architects to design a pricey condo development—called The Residences at Prince—in the historic structure. Those hit the market earlier this year asking from, coincidentally enough, $7 million.
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