Historic Turtle Bay Gardens home asks $16.5M

38-foot-wide townhouse on market for only the second time since 1961

Interior shots of the townhouse at 226-228 East 49th Street
Interior shots of the townhouse at 226-228 East 49th Street

A townhouse in the historic Turtle Bay Gardens neighborhood is on the market for only the second time since 1961 asking $16.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The 38-foot-wide, 8,000-square-foot house, located at 226-228 East 49th Street, has five bedrooms and seven fireplaces, according to a listing by Douglas Elliman’s Steve Halprin and Jan Hashey seen by the Journal. The property boasts a ballroom, a fifth-floor exercise pool, a double-height artist’s studio and a retrofitted elevator.

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In 1919, Charlotte Martin bought 20 dilapidated houses near Second Avenue and completely remodeled them, while also creating an expansive shared garden for the complex. It was last sold in 1997 to David Deutsch, a painter, for $2.45 million.

The houses have been home to many storied residents, including Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn and literary giant E.B. White, who deemed the willow trees in the garden “long suffering and much climbed.” [WSJ]  – Hiten Samtani