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A distinctive townhouse that’s long puzzled and intrigued Upper East Siders — and anyone who’s walked down East 71st Street — is officially for sale.
Known as the “Bubble House” for its unmistakable oval windows, 251 East 71st Street (between Second and Third avenues) has hit the market with an asking price of $5.75 million. It’s the first time the property has been listed in five decades, according to Curbed.
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The building spans four stories and comes with 4,736 square feet of space, according to the listing description by Leslie Garfield. While the exterior remains its most memorable feature, the interior offers four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a garden-level office space. The single family residence’s annual tax bill is $68,928.
The house’s façade is unlike anything else on the block, or really anywhere in the city — a pinkish stucco surface punctuated by convex oval windows that swivel open from the side. The design has drawn comparisons to portholes and even space capsules. “It’s this iconic neighborhood property — the kind of place where people walk by and knock on the door wanting to see it,” said listing broker Richard Pretsfelder, a senior partner at Leslie Garfield, in an interview with Curbed. “Which is strange in New York.”
Before it became the Bubble House, 251 East 71st was a more conventional brownstone built in the 19th century. Over the years, it served as a rooming house and later as apartments. But in 1969, the original structure was demolished and replaced with the current building, designed by architect Maurice Medcalfe of Hills & Medcalfe. Medcalfe incorporated similarly shaped windows in his own residence in Stony Point, New York.
The New York Times described the Bubble House windows in 1976 as “an interesting variation of the bay window,” and in 2019, ArchDaily included it in a roundup of buildings that helped define modernism in New York City, calling it “one of the city’s most idiosyncratic modern buildings.”
Rabbi Arthur Schneier (of Park East Synagogue) bought the property in 1974, and city records show that he’s owned it ever since.
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The home is in need of a full renovation, though a photo shows “a space that’s pleasant and airy with streamlined fireplace mantels, recessed ceiling lights, and white carpet,” Curbed notes. A large hot tub, one of the property’s more unusual interior elements, was recently removed ahead of the sale.
Although the house has become something of a local landmark, it is not officially landmarked and sits just outside the Upper East Side Historic District.
Pretsfelder told Curbed the home “will need a full renovation,” but hopes any future owner maintains its singular exterior. “Just not — fingers crossed — one that alters its eye-catching exterior too much.”
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Quote: “It’s this iconic neighborhood property — the kind of place where people walk by and knock on the door wanting to see it,” said listing broker Richard Pretsfelder, a senior partner at Leslie Garfield
— Wow, as if this building’s bizarre and repulsive façade weren’t reason enough to avoid it! Who wants strangers banging on your door all the time? Hard pass, as they say.