SOMETIMES it is just so hard to commit to buy one of those one-of-a-kind town houses in Manhattan, because, almost by definition, there is nothing to compare it with.
18 East 66th Street.
But now, at the start of the spring selling season, the Manhattan luxury market is blessed with some two-of-a-kind town houses — twins or doppelgängers, giving buyers a chance for some real comparison shopping.
A 45-foot-wide mansion designed by C. P. H. Gilbert in the 1920s at 22 East 71st Street was recently listed for $75 million — the highest asking price in Manhattan — by Serena Boardman and Meredyth Hull Smith, brokers from Sotheby’s International Realty.
If it is a pinch too big for one’s taste or pocketbook, a second oversized mansion designed by Gilbert, also just off Madison Avenue, is available for $64 million. The listing at 18 East 68th Street by Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens is also priced above the most expensive town house ever sold in Manhattan.
Both houses have iron and stone balustrades out front and ornate copper roofs, and need a strong dose of tender loving care.
The house on East 68th Street, which is next to a large apartment building, has elaborate paneled rooms on the ground floor, but was carved into 16 apartments years ago. Ms. Del Nunzio, working with Scully & Scully, the furniture and gift store, has brought in stuffed leather furniture and period desks and tables to give the place a turn-of-the-last century look.
Then, suppose you are taken with the idea of living in a house once owned by Andy Warhol. You might be savoring the modest town house at 1342 Lexington Avenue near East 89th Street, where he lived with his mother and where he worked as he was developing his breakthrough pop art pieces in the 1960s. The asking price is $5.995 million in a listing by Lawrence Comroe of the Corcoran Group.
But if you crave something more ambitious — a bit wider, taller and bigger, with a Warhol imprimatur — there is also 57 East 66th Street, now on the market. Mr. Warhol lived there from 1974 until his death in 1987, though he moved his studio to a series of Warhol factories across Manhattan. The listing, by Carol Cohen and Deborah Grubman at Corcoran, has a $38.5 million asking price.
The Lexington Avenue town house, only 16 ½ feet wide and 48 feet deep, provides a sense of intimacy to the small rooms where Warhol worked. On the other hand, the East 66th Street address has more space. It is 20 feet wide and 75 feet deep, with more than 9,600 square feet, according to city records. A plaque celebrating Warhol is affixed to the building, which was “completely renovated by the current owners to the very highest standards,” according to the listing.
