Real Estate

Norah Jones Offers Lavish Cobble Hill Greek Revival With Pool, Solar, Cedar Closet for $8 Million

The layout of the extra-wide townhouse is essentially unchanged since Jones bought it a decade ago, but the mechanical and luxury additions are quite significant.

by Stephen Zacks

11/13/2019 4 minute 0

Singer-songwriter Norah Jones purchased an extra-wide Greek Revival townhouse in the Cobble Hill Historic District a decade ago, lavishly customized it, and this week put it on the market for $8 million. The layout is essentially unchanged, but the mechanical and luxury additions are quite significant.

Among the energy-saving upgrades are a geothermal heat exchange system–something we have seen in the country and in one LEED Platinum office tower but never heard of in a Brooklyn townhouse–double-glazed windows, and rooftop solar. Some of the other enhancements at 166 Amity Street are a pool and hot tub in the backyard, a terrace on top of the rear extension, and seven windows on the west-facing side exposure–extremely controversial at the time.

The four-story, 25-foot-wide house dates from 1843. It retains pocket doors and its gold-veined black mantels on the parlor level — both with working fireplaces — as well as one in the garden-level dining room. The rear-facing garden-level kitchen has been refinished with a rustic reclaimed wood feel, working fireplace and antique Garland stove. It’s adjacent to the wall-to-wall-windowed rear extension, which on the ground level contains a breakfast area with built-in seating and in the photos is outfitted with a piano. The second level of the rear extension also has wall-to-wall windows and is used as an extension of the living room.

The third floor is now set up as a sprawling master suite, with the front half containing the bedroom. Built-in bookcases straddle the bed, and an office with built-in shelves is located in the small room above the foyer. A cedar-lined walk-in closet in the middle passes through to a sizable bathroom with an antique bathtub and wood-burning fireplace with blue-painted mantel. Patterned aqua floor tiles continue through three French doors to the rear terrace.

The top floor has two more bedrooms and a playroom with a wet bar. A bathroom has a luxurious wooden cabinet–presumably custom-built–and more patterned tiles on the walls and floor. The house also has radiant heat floors and central air conditioning.

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Jones purchased 166 Amity for $4.9 million in 2009. She also owns a carriage house in the neighborhood (the Eat, Pray, Love house). The designation report states that 166 Amity Street was built for gardener Patrick Halegan. This is likely actually Patrick Halligan, an employee of philanthropist Cornelius Heeney, who acquired the surrounding land in the early 19th century.

Now on the market for eight big ones, the house is listed by Sonia Brown and Ryan Serhant at Nest Seekers. Will it get ask?

[Listing: 166 Amity Street | Broker: Nest Seekers] GMAP