Real Estate

Instagram-Famous Heights Carriage House With Fabulous Circa 1970 Interior Asks $4.45 Million

Featuring a living room with a 22-foot-high ceiling, the carefully considered modern interior is as wonderful today as it was when new.

by Stephen Zacks

03/02/2020 5 minute 0

A circa 1850s Brooklyn Heights carriage house with a highly photographed yellow stucco facade has a carefully considered modern interior as fabulous today as it was when new. Featuring a living room with a 22-foot-high ceiling, the insides of 51 Sidney Place are customized with innumerable nooks, built-ins, and personalized rooms neatly hidden in niches within the interior volume.

The vibe of the 1960s/’70s-era renovation might remind some of Terence Conran’s famed 1974 “The House Book” or a 1950s Frank Lloyd Wright dwelling. Former owner Philip William Pfeifer, an antiques dealer and Yale architecture graduate who lived in the home until 1978, carried out the design.

Two cuts of floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass door penetrate the south and east walls of the living room with its soaring ceiling. The walls are decked in wide strips of pecky cypress wood paneling that accentuate the tall vertical dimensions. An exposed brick chimney on an opposite wall has the same effect, towering over the working fireplace and of-center modern mantel. The doorway in the living room leads to a slate-covered patio area with planted borders.

The house’s entrance is from a side door sheltered under a cantilevered modern canopy. The entrance is accessed via a side walkway, perhaps once a horse path. On the house’s front facade, the original double stable doors have been converted to a broad arched window and the historic single-door entrance is now a dummy.

The built-out center of the interior is framed in white horizontal volumes and washed with light filtering in from a strip of skylights. Hidden behind the non-working front door is a breakfast nook on a raised platform with built-in seating and shelves.

The long, modern kitchen features streamlined white cabinets, attractive terra-cotta tile flooring and more wood paneled walls. A family room is outfitted as a den and has more built-in shelving and a terra-cotta tile-covered niche for the daybed.

A half-landing in the central staircase opens to a bedroom with an en suite bathroom. On the third floor is an office in a balcony overlooking the living room, two more bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom looks out onto the street through arched windows and includes an extensive walk-in closet and dressing room. None of the house’s three bathrooms are pictured.

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The listing mentions the house has air conditioning, but doesn’t elaborate on the age or condition of the mechanicals and systems. Judging only by the photos, the home appears to be in largely move-in condition.

51 Sidney Place was likely constructed as the carriage house for 109 State Street. Historic maps show a building on this location since at least 1850, and in 1852 a house on the northeast corner of State Street and Sidney Place was advertised as for sale along with “a brick stable in the rear.” 109 State Street itself was built circa 1830s. The carriage house is located in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District.

Whether former owner Pfeifer was the architect of record and/or the principal designer is unclear, but his 2012 obit mentions he renovated the house. The house last changed hands in 1991, when it sold for $350,000.

Listed by Skyline Realty LLC, 51 Sidney Place is asking $4.45 million. How do you like it?

[Listing: 51 Sidney Place | Broker: Skyline Realty LLC] GMAP