We are flattered! Also mildly unnerved.
Photo: Houlihan Lawrence Inc.
I must admit that — as a Curbed editor who also runs New York’s OldNYMag archives account on Instagram — I was not prepared to see my worlds colliding in a Dobbs Ferry powder room. But here they are: At some point a couple of decades back, the occupant of 38 Lefurgy Avenue got into the Mod Podge and (just guessing here) some mind-altering substances and papered this room, floor to ceiling, cabinets included, with covers from New York Magazine. Judging by the photo in the listing, most of the covers are from the 1970s and early 1980s, but they don’t stop there; the newest one I can spot is from 2010 (Jimmy Fallon, blowing bubblegum just to the right of the mirror). That suggests that this was a rolling project, updated as this enthusiastic homeowner saw fit.
The house dates to 1957, and the crimson sink and toilet look to be original or nearly so. Otherwise it’s an unpretentious place with extremely unremarkable decor: nearly 2,100 square feet, three bedrooms, nice little hearth, one-car garage below grade. The house has two bathrooms, the other one of which is not sprung from a fever dream of Milton Glaser. It can be yours right now for $849,000, or (should you not be in the market right now) you can upgrade to a print subscription and start saving the covers for your own DIY project circa 2028.
Institutionally speaking, I can say that we are quite flattered, although I do wonder whether it might not be the most relaxing bathroom experience for me or my colleagues. It slightly recalls Cindy Adams’s Park Avenue office, covered in her front-page scoops turned amber with the years. Our paper stock seems to age better than the Post’s.
Sherry Wiggs, the broker at Houlihan Lawrence who has the Dobbs Ferry listing, says nobody’s sure who did the collaging. “It’s my third time selling this house, and it was done before I had the listing the first time — long before,” she says. It must be a talking point when you show the house, I suggest. “Yes!” she says, then pauses. “It’s unusual for sure.” And probably doomed in the next renovation, I offer. “You know, I think a lot of people would change it when the time comes,” she admits.” While it lasts, it’s a fine reminder of the reading habits of the analog era, when even the greatest magazine covers inevitably ended up next to the toilet.
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