35 Stuyvesant Street is quite the masterpiece. The townhouse also a total mess. Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photo: Compass

35 Stuyvesant Street is a work of art. The façade of the 19th-century Anglo-Italianate townhouse — with its lovely rounded, arched windows — is beautiful on its own, and the effect is only heightened by the wisteria that wraps it come spring each year. The interiors of the landmarked home are just as striking —plenty of prewar details still intact, including painted wooden shutters on the south-facing windows. It is also an unholy mess. (A person I spoke to who toured the property described “haunted-house-level disrepair,” including stairs missing slats and walls that one can, in certain spots, peer through.)

The property that was once home to the Gothic furniture collector Lee B. Anderson went on the market in October 2023 and has seen two price cuts since. Now, with a sleek new broker in Compass’s Nick Gavin and an asking price of $3.89 million, the question is: Won’t anyone buy this decrepit little masterpiece?

This languishing East Village townhouse, as seen in this listing photo, feels tailored made for Compass’s Nick Gavin. Photo: Compass

Anderson bought the house in 1958 and spent decades filling it with his various treasures — think high-backed chairs and spindly birdcages — and hosted parties attended by everyone from Andy Warhol to Lee Radziwill and Halston. But it’s seen better days. Brokers and those familiar with No. 35 in its current condition say Gavin was the right move — “bring your contractor” homes sometimes need the right touch to move them along. One real-estate agent who’s sold several brownstones told me that while it’s possible a developer could end up buying the place in an attempt to flip it, the more likely buyer would be a well-off creative type. (Or a well-off type who fancies themselves a creative?) “Someone who is going to have to have really deep pockets and a lot of time on their hands,” this person tells me.

Time was a recurring theme in my conversations. (Did we mention it’s landmarked?) “That’s probably the biggest single thing,” Serhant’s Ravi Kantha, who handles townhouse sales, tells me. The current owners, according to city records, are Rocco Carlucci and Glenn Zecco, the latter of whom was Anderson’s caretaker until he died in 2010. Kantha says where the property is priced right now is “a good deal,” but he adds that when it comes to renovations today, a lot of people don’t want to do the work. “They know it’s expensive and takes a long time. It’s a headache,” he says. Again, the right buyer is key.

And Corcoran’s Monica Rittersporn, who previously held the listing and lives on the block, had no such luck. Even after some interested parties looped in their architects and contractors, she says, they decided against putting in an offer. The task felt too monumental.  “They didn’t have the headspace,” she says.

Also potentially tricky: The house, which sits on a rare Manhattan diagonal that forms the so-called Renwick Triangle, has a kooky floorplan. It’s 32 feet wide, but is quite shallow — just 14 feet deep. And then there’s the backyard issue: Specifically, it doesn’t have one. “Part of the expected package when people buy a townhouse is that they’re going to get a garden, a backyard,” Kantha says. ”When you don’t have one, you’re competing with all the other houses that do.”

Gavin, for his part, isn’t sweating it. (Would he ever tell us otherwise?) He’s confident that the house will sell before the wisteria blooms. In fact, he tells me, just two weeks after taking over the listing, a contract is out. “It’s going to be special when someone fixes it up,” he says.

Additional reporting by Adriane Quinlan.

Whoever buys this decrepit but lovely townhouse, as seen in this listing photo, will need to have some deep pockets. Photo: Compass

This East Village townhouse, as seen in this listing photo, somehow has many of its charming prewar details still intact. Photo: Compass