She’s prewar, a classic 6, and yours for $1.75 million: the filming location for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which also happens to be an apartment at The Strathmore—404 Riverside Drive in Washington Heights.
Let’s start with what it comes with: A classic 6, if you’re not familiar, is a reference to the style of building (classic, prewar) and the number of rooms it has: two beds, a maid’s room, a formal dining and a living room. Apartment 8A, listed by Courtney Heisen on Jonathan Stein’s team of Douglas Elliman agents, hasn’t been on the market in over 30 years. It’s got 11-foot ceilings, two fireplaces, original inlaid floors, and views of the Hudson River. The dining room, states the listing, flows right into a large kitchen that features oversized windows: «a true luxury in New York City living.»
What it doesn’t come with are the interiors shown on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all five seasons of which were created on a sound stage. The Strathmore, built in 1909 on the Upper West Side of New York City, plays the exterior of the building. But the set design did hew closely to period-appropriate decor and a layout very like those that might have been found inside the building at the time.
If you’re not familiar with the show, here’s a quick recap: The protagonist, Miriam “Midge” Maisel, lives in a 7-room apartment (you read that right) in the same building as her parents’ 7-room apartment, in the 1950s. According to interviews with set designer Bill Groom, Midge’s parents’ apartment is more representative of what might be called original design and decor, whereas Midge’s shows an aesthetic updated in the ’50s. And both apartments would have been very expensive, even adjusting for inflation.
The Strathmore, built in 1909, is in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
According to math done by Refinery29, in 2018, when the second season of the show was aired, the apartments might have cost the family something like $462,000, circa 1959. This figure was arrived at, writes Refinery29, using data from the U.S. Census as well as the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index. And, estimating that two apartments would have had to be combined to create the kind of 7-room wonder depicted in the show, the price for such an apartment in 2018 would come to around $8,850,000, based on two units listed that year: 12N and 12CD.
But this is a tough calculation to make. Originally, apartments in this building are said to have had upwards of 10 rooms that were later broken into smaller units, and weren’t initially available to own, only to rent.
Regardless, apartment 8A, while it isn’t a 7-room palace and it will likely need updating (the kitchen was redone at some point in the last 30 years), its current $1.75 million price actually sounds pretty reasonable.
Throughout apartment 8A are original inlaid floors, crown moldings, and two decorative fireplaces.
Especially when you consider the charms of a building like the Strathmore. Supposedly called «one of the finest of its kind in the upper end of the Drive,» by the New York Times, its amenities include doormen, porters, a live-in resident manager, handymen, and various storage rooms. Overall, the building has 12 floors and 48-units.
Once upon a time, the site was owned by John Jacob Astor, whose son, William Waldorf, sold to Bing & Bing Realty, the agency behind some of the most desirable luxe high-rise buildings in the city, and often called the most important real estate developers in the city. Bing & Bing brought in architects Simon Schwartz and Arthur Gross to design The Strathmore, in 1909. And in 1967, it became a co-op.
The updated kitchen of 8A in 404 Riverside Drive.
If it’s history you’re after, but also a really nice apartment to live out your Mrs. Maisel dreams, this one’s for you.
