One of the last remaining privately owned townhouses fronting New York City’s Washington Square Park has listed for $29.95 million, The Post has learned.
Known as the William Dare Morgan residence at 26 Washington Square North, the Greek Revival-style townhouse was built in 1839.
Situated along the North side of Washington Square Park flanking lower Fifth Avenue, the property is what remains of a group of houses known as “the Row,” built for the social elite of the Village in the 1830s.
It was first purchased by a ship owner named William Dare Morgan, who was vice president of the Produce Exchange; a partner in Grinnell, Tinker & Morgan; a governor of the Knickerbocker Club; a founder of New York Hospital and a graduate of Yale University.
Morgan and his wife Angelica Livingston Hoyt, a descendant of two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, raised four children in the home.
Occupying five floors, not including the cellar and the roof, the property spans 7,350 square feet, with an additional 1,400 square feet in the basement.
The house was originally built as a four-story home with a gated forecourt, ornate fencing, an elevated stoop, a formal columned entrance portico and paneled door with sidelights.
Morgan and his wife added the fifth floor in 1880, where their family remained for over half a century.
Subsequent owners include former silent movie executive Richard West Saunders, well-known attorney John Pinkerton East, painter Everett Shinn and the financier Charles V. Bob.
Thoroughly renovated in 2018, the property has been configured as five floor-through luxury rental apartments, which the listing notes can be easily converted into a single-family residence.
Pegged as a “one-of-a-kind” 26-foot wide landmark, the building, block, park, and surrounding neighborhood are all protected and preserved as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District.
The homes were first anchored by the William C. Rhinelander mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue — which were houses first considered as “a speculative investment, meant to convey an image of stature and privilege and attract New York’s most successful entrepreneurs and public figures,” the listing explains.
Today, the homes are recognized as one the most sought-after and spectacular series of Greek Revival houses in the country.
Washington Square Park was named after the first US president and recognized worldwide for its iconic triumphal arch designed by the famed Gilded Age architect Stanford White.
During the 1900s, the Washington Square Park area, which also acts as an anchor for New York University, was home to notable American writers including Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and Ida Tarbell.
Torsten Krines and Fred Williams of Sotheby’s International Realty hold the listing.