A Manhattan townhouse that the iconic actress Katharine Hepburn called home for decades has hit the market.
Located within Turtle Bay Gardens, the 164-year-old property was owned by the late leading lady from 1931 until her death, at age 96, in 2003.
Hepburn’s estate sold the four-bedroom, four-bathroom abode for $3.9 million in 2004, to the current seller, who is now seeking $7.2 million, Crain’s first reported.
“The owners purchased the house as a pied a terre and because they have been coming to NYC less frequently, they made the difficult decision to sell,” said Lisa Larson, of Sotheby’s International Realty, who holds the listing. “It was a tough decision as the renovation and interior design of the house was a labor of love and they have thoroughly enjoyed the house over the years.”
Built in the late 1800s, 244 E. 49th St. measures in at 4,560 square feet, not including the enormous shared garden.
Spread over five stories, the 19-foot-wide residence features six fireplaces, a restored wooden staircase and Hepburn’s still-intact mirrored vanity.
The garden floor opens to a stone-tiled foyer leading into the eat-in kitchen equipped with a built-in breakfast table and a banquette, double ovens and a butler’s pantry with a Sub-Zero wine cooler.
From there, the layout flows into the dining room, off of which there’s access to the building’s own green space. Beyond that, through a low wooden gate, there’s the lush Turtle Bay Gardens — a shared private park full of landscaped flora and multiple fountains accessible exclusively to the 20 townhouses that surround it.
Upstairs on the parlor level is a formal living room, a Juliette balcony, a wet bar and a rear library. The third floor contains the primary bedroom and a secondary bedroom currently in use as an office; the top floor has the final two bedrooms, both with walk-in closets.
On the lowest level there is a wine cellar, a laundry room and a half bathroom.
Other Turtle Bay Gardens residents have previously included Bob Dylan, E.B. White and Stephen Sondheim, whose 5,690-square-foot former townhouse at 246 East 49th St. sold for $7 million this past December.