martedì 11 maggio 2010

Truman Capote's 11-bedroom Brooklyn Heights mansion on the market for a Brooklyn-record $18M


FROM DAILY NEWS
BY Jason Sheftell
REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENT

Truman Capote's home, on 70 Willow St. in Brooklyn Heights, has 11 bedrooms and fireplaces, and is set to become the most expensive townhouse in the borough's history. Related NewsArticlesOwner of $14M Hamptons rental hits back at tenant who claimed in lawsuit that it's a dump The Closer: What celeb is rumored to be renting on 37th St.?Real estate's on a roll! Experts dish on why housing is a hot market againBrooklyn's most fabulous house, the 11-bedroom mansion where Truman Capote wrote his most famous books, can be yours for $18 million.

The spectacular home at 70 Willow St. in Brooklyn Heights - on the market Monday for just the third time in 70 years - is likely to break sales records in the borough and become the most expensive townhouse in its history.

The standing record for a Brooklyn house is just under $12 million, set at the dizzying height of the real estate boom.

Realtors say the lavish, 18-room Willow St. home is expected to top that - crash or no crash. Already, brokers have lined up several showings for international buyers and well-heeled locals wanting a shot at the historic home.

With 11 fireplaces, parking for four cars, a mural copied from the Kennedy White House, a back porch and a garden like something out of a Southern estate, the Brooklyn Heights mansion is touted as the finest house in the borough's finest neighborhood. "It's like living in a country estate in the middle of New York City," said Karen Heyman, the Sotheby's broker selling the property. "It takes your breath away the minute you walk in."

Built in 1839 and now in the hands of a media entrepreneur, the house was owned in the 1950s by Broadway art director Oliver Smith, who designed the famous sets for "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story." Capote said he got Smith blitzed on martinis to persuade his friend to rent him the house's garden apartment from 1955 to 1965.

There, amid the grand Greek Revival columns and crystal chandeliers, the eccentric writer dreamed up iconic New York party girl Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's." He also wrote "In Cold Blood," his famous "nonfiction" novel, at the mansion.

Capote would throw extravagant parties when Smith left town, often bragging that he owned the entire property.

Eighteen million dollars would be a record for Brooklyn, but barely a sneeze in Manhattan, where Madonna recently paid $40 million for a 57-foot-wide Georgian home with a two-car garage on E. 81st St.

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