'A work of art': The wisteria-clad New York home where Andy Warhol hung out with Cher
Chic has never looked so shabby, nor shabby so chic.
On paper, 35 Stuyvesant Street is nothing more, nor less, than an ordinary Manhattan townhouse for sale: four bedrooms, five storeys, and just over 3,500sq ft of space.
Pretty much everything else about this $3.895 million home makes it obvious that this townhouse is anything but ordinary.
Let's start with its origins. Built in 1861, it was designed by James Renwick Jr, an architect who, according to the Smithsonian, 'designed some of the most famous buildings in America'. Among his achievements are the iconic St Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and 'The Castle', The Smithsonian Institution's iconic, Gothic-inspired headquarters in Washington DC. Pedigrees simply don't get any stronger.
Stuyvesant Street is one of the oldest streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan, within the East Village.
Let's move on to the building's history. It was bought in 1958 by Lee B. Anderson, the teacher-turned-furniture collector who became the pioneer of the Gothic Revival style in America — affectionately dubbed the 'Godfather of Gothic'.
The house, in the words of agent Nick Gavin, became 'part home, part salon, and part exhibition', a hotspot for post-war culture in the City where the likes of Cher, Andy Warhol, the fashion designer Halston and Jacqueline Kennedy's sister Lee Radziwill would pop round to say hello, see what's new and hang out in among Anderson's unmatched collection of curious.
Finally, though — and arguably of most interest to the Manhattan house buyers of 2026 — is the building's present appearance. To walk past it in Spring is to visit an East Village landmark, with the wisteria flowers hanging heavy on the boughs that cover the facade, lighting up the area's revered Renwick Triangle.
Anderson loved the wisteria, tending it for decades according to the Francis York blog. But as pretty as it is outside, it's the interiors that really make the place stand out. Exposed brick and plaster, original floorboards pitted, scored and stained over the decades, peeling paint, cracking walls and chipped tiles all come together through a sort of magical alchemy to make the place what it is today.
You could dismiss it as shabby chic taken to the nth degree, but would be horribly reductive, for chic has never looked so shabby, and shabby has never looked so chic. As Matthew Sedacca put it in an article for Curbed, '35 Stuyvesant Street is a work of art'.
The house had been for sale for a while, but since Gavin took on the listing a buyer has been found and contracts are apparently signed. We can't wait to see what happens next in the story of this wonderful place.
35 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY, is listed with Nick Gavin via Compass.
