When Your Home Has a History

All old homes have "a history." People were born in them, and died. Land was taken away by the building of roads, or sold to neighbors. Things happened. Of course, it's always fascinating when a house really does have a history that resonates because it's specific to a famous or historically important person. You can rent Bette Davis's house in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, for example. Now, that would be fun -- that is, if it hasn't been messed up by injudicious renovations.

Not in my apartment, but Loudon Wainwright and then his daughter Lucy Roche lived just up the stairs from me. And, in "Angels In America," one of the protagonists lives on Pineapple Street, an homage to Stephen Langley, formerly head of the Brooklyn College Drama Dept., who occupied the penthouse apartment here and died of AIDS. Then there's my former apartment on Easy 82nd Street, where Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records lived directly underneath, and René Zellwegger occupied the same apartment I lived in.

When I moved back to NYC in '97 after a couple of years in Miami Beach, for the summer I lived in Larry Rivers' loft at 406 E 14th. Every summer he'd go to his house out in the Hamptons. That summer he rented it out to his old nanny while he was away. I was friends with her friend and there was an open bedroom (actually not a real bedroom, a windowless 8x10 closet where he kept his books). I don't think Larry needed the money. He was probably just doing her a favor. It was pretty cool living in Larry's loft though... all of his stuff was still there, his work on the walls, furniture, etc. And I got to read his books all summer. When Larry came back at the end of the summer, we all had to find new places to live. A couple of us just moved one floor down, to the loft on the other side of the building (405 E 13th). That loft was Claes Oldenburg's loft at one time. That was pretty cool, too. And Allen Ginsberg had lived just across the hall on the 5th floor (he had just passed away though, so i didn't get to meet him). Living in the building was definitely a pretty cool experience though! If the walls of those lofts could talk... a lot of history there for sure!

My wonderful Inn located here in Southwest CT has a history wherein the original owner of 1894 ..... .......HENRY J. STUART, Derby, Conn., assignor to The R. N. Bassett Company, Derby, Conn., a Corporation of Connecticut. Filed Apr. 11, 1914. Serial No. 831,117. (Cl. 24–245.) In a tab end, a button-supporting plate, a transverse slot in the upper end thereof above the button, an intermediate slot therein below the button. Westport-based commercial real estate firm Vidal/Wettenstein in December announced the sale of the former Bassett production facility in Derby. Bassett, which was founded in Derby, built an additional plant in Shelton in 1978 and had moved its headquarters there.

This is about a house far away from New York: Neve Tzedek, Israel. I had a friend who moved into a house in a neighborhood of Tel Aviv. When she arrived there, she found an original photograph of Yassir Arafat. She always wondered why, and learned at a later point, that secret pre-meetings of Camp David where held in that very same house. This friend would always joke that Arafat relieved himself in her house..

The flip side of all this, is when the home has a history the realtor doesn't want the buyer, or renter for that matter, to know about! Real Estate is one of the sleaziest businesses out there!!!

Decades ago, I worked on documentary at Hotel Des Artistes. It was to be the last time all of Howard Chandler Christy's artwork would be together in his loft that was finally being sold. I remember falling for one beautiful picture of a sailboat out at sea. When I naively inquired about it, I was informed that Jackie Onassis already had dibs on it. Honestly, I was over the moon that Ms. Onassis and I both found it lovely. Years later in a used bookstore, I happened to pick up a book " The Pioneers and Patriots of America -- Daniel Boone." On the third page was HCC's signature as the proud owner of the book as well as the year he bought the book, and of course, his home address 1 W 67th Street. Perhaps Howard was throwing me a bone, so to speak. Again, another sweet moment. I still have the book.

Santa Fe is a nice place to visit but after NY? I would never want to live there.

The Valentino apartment is simply breathtaking — like stepping back inro the 1920s...the wordwork is beautiful. Great article.

House histories are food for the architecture-lover's heart and soul. As a past-president of The Victorian Alliance of San Francisco--a preservation organization known for the detailed accounts that constitute our tour programs--I can attest that the details of an interesting house history make the place come alive. Delightful article. Thanks so much for publishing it.

Someday, we will live in New York (City)! We will buy one of those older apartments with a rich history! Of course, it will be drafty and the size of a large closet-We will be content! Of course, I have a cousin, who lives in the New York area, and when I do babble on about moving from out West (Portland, of all places) to the East coast he just looks at me with an odd look. He then asks, "Why?" and when I do answer he always ends these types of conversations with "...really?" I think he knows something I don't...

When Natacha Rambova was a child, her mother was married to Elsie de Wolfe's younger brother. It was Elsie who convinced her sister in law to send her daughter to Europe for a good education, where she developed an interest in ballet, art and costume design, which years later led to her work in silent films, where she met Rudolph Valentino . . . the connections are endless.

I really like the Wallingford, CT home, very cozy, though a bit overstuffed for me. Funny thing, I like it better than the Bunny Williams decorated co-op, which also seems to have too much "stuff". The Wallingford home just seems "homier".

I suppose it's always a good idea to honor the legacy of an residence. However, I strongly encourage residents to live their own lives to the fullest and forge their own special memories and experiences rather than dwell on what "might have" happened in the residence.

According to street easy, the Valentino apartment is over 2000 square feet. How is that "not large?"

We have lived in a sea captain's house in Mystic, CT that was built in 1837 for more than three decades. But the most interesting thing about the house is it's history. The mere fact that it has stood there majestically across from the Mystic Seaport withstanding multiple hurricanes and snow storms without falling down is a testament to the early settlers construction techniques. Did Captain Appelman really own two whaling ships? Or why did Captain Edward"Ned" Beach build that bomb shelter in the 1950s. We are still finding bits and pieces of this house's history.

Every older home has an interesting story to tell! You can hire someone to do the research, or do it yourself. I could write a book about that. Oops! I already did. -- Betsy J. Green, author of "Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood," Santa Monica Press, 2002

This article would be a good, even great if it had its' counterpart printed anywhere over the last 2 years. This disconnect coupled with the paper's general spin is why it will be of no help to the Democratic nominee in 2020...again. And, I for one, will be sadenned...again.

While it's always intriguing to hear about an old apartment or old house with a pedigree, the fact of a place being old is itself rather lovely. People lived and died there; they used gas light and switched to electric, there are coal bins in basements -- and then someone purchased an oil furnace; a major expense! Old clawfoot tubs are buried in backyards. Longer skirts swept down staircases, and stovepipe hats had to bend below low door frames. Who were these people?

Our five-story coop in Carnegie Hill was once owned by Irving Berlin; Balanchine's memorial service took place at the Russian Orthodox church across the street; the Marx brothers grew up a block away (as a boy, Harpo apparently scaled the fence of a mansion on 93rd and Park to steal pears off trees in the yard). New York is an incredible place to live.

Jim Morrison slept in my house in Brooklyn. My kids love this and tell everyone who visits. We named our dog Jim.

In the late 1950s, my wife's widowed grandmother rented her summer cottage in Chatham to musicians who were appearing at jazz impresario George Wein's famed Boston nightclub Storyville, the Newport Jazz Festival, and Storyville's short-lived offshoot in the nearby town of Harwich. Jazz greats (with and without their families) who stayed in the house we live in now included Josh White, Stan Free, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Vaughn (and her trio), and Wein himself. The Divine Sarah was the last to rent, and my wife remembers as a small child seeing her drummer taking his kit out to his car. There was music sublime in what a friend has dubbed the "Jazz House."

In 1986 I bought a Tribeca loft from Martin Scorsese, Not being a movie buff I had to ask the broker who he was. I know from neighbors that Robert DeNiro (who lived up the street) was a frequent visitor. Presumably also other luminaries. I never met Scorsese. The loft could only be shown when he wasn't there. And lawyers showed up at the closing.

In New England some houses have a plaque with date of construction. I breifly lived in one marked 1671, while dating a woman in college that gre up living in the home of a Connecticut governor. Not much in California, where I live now, is that old, but I did occupy the very old home, hand built with local river rock, of a shepherd in an area of Oakland California formally known as Shepherd's Canyon. It was in a fairly remote location, and I learned later that a woman had been murdered there a few years before I moved in. I would disagree with Mr. Steinhardt, the walls can talk.

No Valentino here, but we’ve owned a pre-war house for the past 20 years. We’ve always known it was architecturally significant, but never gave much thought to the people who lived in our house, except we had heard from a neighbor a rumor about black market tires stored in our basement during WWII. A few weeks ago, a historian turned up. She was writing an article for a local paper about the architectural style, was including our house, and wanted to know if we knew any of the history. Which prompted me to do some research. What I discovered... The first owner was a local business owner, pillar of the community, and his socialite wife. Until 1942, when there’s a series of articles in the local paper about him being convicted in federal court of violating the wartime rationing laws. Our basement, which is rare in Southern California, was the home for 55 tires and 500 pounds of sugar. At a time when people were allowed 1/2 pound of sugar per week, and had to apply to the rationing board to get tires on an as needed basis. Shortly after that, they moved across town. None of the subsequent owners were quite as interesting.

During the 1970's I lived in a few apartments on 161 Street and Riverside Drive. I think the addresses were 674 W 161 St, 684 W 161 St and the building across the street which I think was 900 Riverside Drive. Aside from the beautiful views of the Hudson River and the Little Red Lighthouse, if one was lucky enough to have an apartment facing the Hudson River, and the fact that rent for a 5 room apartment (great for our political collectives) was about $200 a month, the story we always heard was that the Yankee teams from the 20's and 30's lived in these buildings. Allegedly, Lou Gehrig lived in my old apartment in 900 Riverside (either 4-A or 4-F). I never checked out whether this was true but it was always nice thinking it could be.