The Greek Revival townhouse at 125 West 11th Street has long been a haven for artists. Daniel Chester French, a sculptor best known for designing the statue of Lincoln in the memorial in Washington, moved there in the late 1880s, and it was also home to Valerie Bettis, the modern dancer and choreographer who worked with stars like Rita Hayworth.
Since late 1957, the Greenwich Village house, erected in 1849 between Seventh Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, has been in the Fonseca family. The Uruguayan sculptor Gonzalo Fonseca and Elizabeth Kaplan Fonseca, a painter, raised their four children there, among them, the author Isabel Fonseca, whose books include “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey.” (One son is an accomplished artist and their eldest daughter a clothing artist; the eldest son, also an artist, died in 1994.)
“Interesting how few owners the house has had in its entire life,” Ms. Fonseca said, explaining in an email that the home, bought from Ms. Bettis, had been a wedding gift to her parents from her maternal grandfather. “We four children and the grandchildren were lucky to have the house as a constant in our lives, even when we grew up and moved away.”
ImageThere is a studio on the garden level. It includes a loft with a skylight that is reachable via spiral staircase.Credit...Daniel WangWith the death of Ms. Kaplan Fonseca in late 2022 at age 93, the townhouse is poised to receive another owner. It is on the market, through her estate, for the first time in nearly 67 years, with an asking price of $25 million, according to the listing broker, David Kornmeier of Brown Harris Stevens. Annual property taxes are $53,459.
The painted brick and limestone structure — six stories high and 22.3 feet wide, with a classic brownstone stoop — encompasses 7,878 square feet. It has six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. There are a total of 805 square feet of exterior space as well, including two terraces, a rear patio and a front yard enclosed by a wrought-iron gate.
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