156 West 88th Street
From the March issue: On the gutted second floor of 34 East 68th Street, residential real estate broker George van der Ploeg is giving a mini-lecture on 19th-century architecture. A rectangular staircase pillar isn’t original to the 1879 brownstone, says van der Ploeg, who is marketing the $11.975 million listing with fellow Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Nancy Aryeh. However, another round post a few feet away, topped with an elaborate handrail, “is original, and would have been mahogany, though it’s covered with about 10 layers of paint,” he says. Townhouse specialists like van der Ploeg are a vanishing breed. [more]
