Are there any single-family, detached homes in Manhattan?

I’ve never been to NYC, but am fascinated by the density and cosmopolitan culture of it all, especially Manhattan. Occasionally, I even browse the online real estate listings for some of the opulent hi-rise apartments for sale in the city. One thing I have never seen anywhere is a mention of a single-family detached home in Manhattan itself. I know they exist in the other boroughs, especially Queens and SI. Are there any in Manhattan? I’m talking about the traditional style home that is generally considered to be the American dream. I would guess the only place they might exist would be on the far northern end of the island.

What about Brooklyn? I’m guessing there are some there but in low percentage numbers relative to the overall housing stock.

Yes. See this previous thread for examples.

I didn’t see it mentioned in the linked thread so I’d thought I’d mention that there are at least 2 single family detached wooden houses in Manhattan (as opposed to townhouses and brownstones).

IIRC, they’re from the 1850’s and have landmark status. I don’t know if they have backyards. I’m pretty sure there are a few more of these type houses scattered about Manhattan though the exact count, I have no idea.

Here’s one in Harlem.

All the boroughs of NYC apart from Manhattan are chiefly residential, with plenty of single-family detached homes (though in fairness, some neighborhoods have seen a rash of single-family homes being converted, legally or not, into apartments). They just rarely get the attention that Manhattan does.

I marvel at the density as well. Saturday I walked 30 miles in Downtown and Midtown, 7 am to 9 pm. There was a very crowded street fair on Broadway from Houston to Grand St, Union Sqare Park very crowded, Madison Square less so. (The rat problem in Madison Square Park seems solved this year with new landscaping.) At Herald Square, with the “Walk” signal, solid crowds flowed across the intersections. There was also critical masses at WTC, Chinatown, Little Italy, Bryant Park.

There are lots (relatively speaking) of single family homes in Inwood; they tend to be brick and have almost no yards, detached but butting very close to the neighbor. Land in Manhattan is just so valuable that everything is built on. That’s probably why there are very few alleys in Manhattan. There are also old buildings in lower Manhattan that at one time were homes, but have been long converted to businesses and with commercial type fronts are unrecognizable. I suspect that single family homes sell so fast in Manhattan that they don’t last long enough to be listed, and if nothing else, builders grab them to tear down and build multi story condos. Any empty space around an old home was probably sold and developed upon a century ago.

Across from the Staten Island Ferry at Battery Park is 7 State Street, originally a private home and one of the only structures in Lower Manhattan to survive the 1835 fire.

From the website:
The building at 7 State Street serves as the rectory of the Shrine of St. Elizabeth. Completed in 1793, it is one of the oldest buildings in Manhattan and is the only survivor of New York’s first era of great mansions. Its lovely facade has late-Georgian detailing, oval windows in the west wall, and a graceful wooden portico that follows the curve of the street. The tapered Ionic columns are said to be from ships’ masts.

It’s open to the public and anyone is free to walk in to “rest or pray.” It’s anomalous, seen from a distance as you come in on the Staten Island Ferry, amid all the very tall buildings.

I actually went to a wedding at the church there last fall. The preist gave a long history of the building at the reheasal the night before - interesting landmark.

Indeed. When reading the thread title, I thought of The Cloisters, on the northern tip of Manhattan.

That’s right next to Inwood Hill Park, and there are some homes there as **YPOD ** describes.

And further north in Washington Heights as well. My grandma and grandfather lived at 217th and Park Terrace West. There were quite a few detached homes. A tiny scrap of lawn in front of back to be sure, but hardly anything. Still and all, true detached homes. I cannot even imagine what they are valued at.

An interesting hijack is this: Given the astonishing wealth of homeowners in many parts of Manhattan, why hasn’t some filthy rich person bought up 3 or 4 brownstones and torn most of them down to create a little oasis of airspace and land around their home ? Or have they?

Many buildings on many blocks are protected on the National Historic Register but not nearly all brownstones. Wonder why some land baron doesn’t re-design a block to suit their desires… and, could they if they wanted to? Would the city have the power to block such a goal ?

Cartooniverse

Sure they have. You’re just looking the wrong direction.

Think about it this way… what makes more sense - buying up a whole lot of verrrry expensive property to build a house with a surrounding yard; or buying the same property, building 40 stories of luxury condos and putting a house with a surrounding yard on the roof?. More air, better view, more profit.

Look to the skies.

People do live on the roof of condo buildings in a house with a surrounding yard, except they call the houses penthouses and they call the yards terraces. A recent issue of the New York Times described an apartment for sale for $28.5 million with almost 11,000 square feet of living space and almost 2,000 square feet of terraces.

Then the priest may have mentioned:
Immediately to your left, as you stand in front of 7 State St., there is a public ‘urban plaza’ space, with trees and benches, privately owned by the 41-story 17 State Street skyscraper next door. Walk through that plaza around to the rear of 7 State Street to New York Unearthed, South Street Seaport’s off-site urban archaeology center.

To continue the nautical theme (of the tapered ionic columns on the portico of 7 State Street possibly being ships’ masts), on a wall back there is a plaque commemorating the birthplace of Herman Melville in 1819, at 6 Pearl Street. Walt Whitman was born that same year just a few miles east.

The original house at 7 State Street – as I understand it – the square, non-curved, non-portico’d part of the building, was there then (built in 1793). So, that part of the building was just across the ‘back yards’ from Melville’s boyhood home.

Uggh. And I was driving through it. Just to drop off a friend. Then drive back to Brooklyn. Sometimes around here 10 miles takes 2 hours. Damn pedestrians!

The Pumpkin House, on the corner of 186th and Chittenden, is a single-family house that literally hangs off a cliff. It’s been on the market for years, and apparently has a really weird layout inside (page down to the bottom question), but it’s got a teeny postage stamp of a garden, and a separate one-car garage. It’s apparently called the Pumpkin House because if you look at it from the river side during the orange light of sunset (very tough unless you’re in a boat), the arrangement of windows looks like a jack-o-lantern. To quote one friend about it, it’s hideous, but think of the view! It hangs out over the Henry Hudson Parkway, which is right next to the Hudson River, so you get these panoramic views up and down the river; across the way are the Palisades, these forested cliffs running down to the river on the New Jersey side.

The building across the street from it looks like a three-story apartment building, but apparently belongs to an older couple who live there alone. I don’t know if that would count as a single-family house for your purposes. It’s kind of the reverse of those buildings further downtown and in other boroughs that were built as single-family houses but have been carved up into apartments.

There are a few standalone mansions, mostly historical accidents, in the main parts of Manhattan but there are also maybe a half-dozen single family detached homes, with driveways and garages, in Inwood, almost at the top of the island. Look around W217th St on google maps…

Well there’s Gracie Mansion.

Dude, what prompted you to post a reply to a five-year-old thread? How did you find it? I gotta know how that happens.

And why did you find TWO five-year-old threads and post replies to both of them?

We really do want to know.