Gershwin biographer’s townhouse sells for $8.6 million


Joan Peyser and 19 Charlton Street

It seems the West Village townhouse, owned by the estate of the late Joan Peyser, a classical music biographer and editor of Music Quarterly magazine from 1977 to 1984, has found a buyer after only a few months on the market.

The property, at 19 Charlton Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, was purchased by an anonymous buyer named 19 Charlton Street LLC for $8.6 million, just $200,000 less than its original listing price in May. Jill Garfinkel of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, the law firm that represented the buyer, declined to comment on his or her identity, saying they had purposely tried to remain as anonymous as possible.

The 23-foot-wide Greek Revival townhouse is one in a row of similar properties, the listing said, characterized by columned entrances and other features suggestive of Greek temples. It has six bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and eight fireplaces, as well as a garden out back.

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The townhouse had been in the Peyser family for 50 years when Joan passed away after open heart surgery in April of this year. Peyser’s daughter, Monica Parks, executor of the estate, was not immediately available for comment.

Leslie Mason, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, represented the seller. She, too, was not available for comment.

Peyers wrote books on George Gerwin and Leonard Bernstein to critical acclaim.