There’s not much you can’t find on Craigslist these days, but the website’s founder, Craig Newmark, couldn’t find a house he wanted on it.
Instead, he looked to a luxury real estate firm for a listing in Greenwich Village: a three-bedroom co-op that Newmark and his wife purchased for $6 million that was listed for $18 million just last year.
This is no standard co-op, either, and it’s great for a eclectic collector. The former resident, the late Robert Pirie, was an avid book collector, among his other pursuits.
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As stated above, Mr. Newmark did not find this home on Craigslist, with Mary A. Vetri of Brown Harris Stevens serving as listing agent. Vetri did not responded to requests for comment.
The carriage-house-turned-library.
The three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom co-op sold for $5.9 million. Although the total square footage for the Newmark’s residence has not been shared, the total for the townhome is just over 6,000 square feet.
The library was transformed out of the carriage. Two-story ceilings and intricate woodwork frame the room. There is a temperature controlled wine room and wood-burning fire places. Stained glass windows allow sunlight to dance in the powder room, eat-in kitchen, and wet room.
There is also access to an outdoor solarium, as well as the backyard.
Hans Hofmann, a famous abstract expressionist painter, housed his art school in the co-op in the 1930s. It was in the walls at 52 West 9th St. where Jackson Pollack’s future wife, renown abstract expressionist Lee Krasner, would introduce Hofmann to art critic Clement Greenberg.
For the next 20 years, the critic covered Hofmann’s work, which helped catapult both to fame.