It's Always a Short Stay at the Edna St. Vincent Millay

"75½ Bedford Street is a beautiful thing to behold. Its stepped-gable roofline tops three stories of nubby brick, while inside there are warm wood-beam ceilings, multiple working fireplaces, and a Dutch door that opens to a rear garden shared with neighbors, including the Cherry Lane Theatre. Its pedigree is romantic: the former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Cary Grant, and John Barrymore. Even the address - that half - is whimsical."

""The bumping of the head between the second and the third floor - I'll always remember that," says Juan Carlos Arcila-Duque, a designer who lived at 75½ in the mid-1990s. He was a self-professed "downtown boy" and thought of the $800 rental as an ideal artist's garret - never mind the cramped layouts or the difficult stairs. He had romances there, became a citizen, and designed his second line of furniture from a desk overlooking Bedford Street."

"The slim little building on Bedford just listed for $4.195 million - not a price point at which buyers tolerate words like uncomfortable. Per square foot, it is about 2.5 times more expensive than the average Manhattan townhouse to close last quarter, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller. Even in this neighborhood, it seems to command a premium, like a misprinted coin that's useless to someone feeding the dryer but interesting to a certain kind of enthusiast."

75½ Bedford Street features a stepped-gable roofline, three stories of nubby brick, warm wood-beam ceilings, multiple working fireplaces, and a Dutch door opening to a shared rear garden. The house previously housed Edna St. Vincent Millay, Cary Grant, and John Barrymore. The address includes a whimsical half number. Recent owners rarely lived there for long. Interior dimensions create narrow rooms just over eight feet wide and an awkwardly placed staircase that causes head bumping between floors. One former resident described it as an ideal artist's garret despite discomfort. The building just listed for $4.195 million and commands roughly 2.5 times the typical Manhattan townhouse price per square foot.

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