Tasteful Friends- A Historic Estate in Yonkers, NY $1,290,000

Wow I adore it. Why so cheap?

Amazing house, still looks the same as it did when it was built.

Priced to sell!

It looks so cool from the outside! I love it.

Is the attic a Catholic altar or a voodoo altar?

I actually like it quite a bit.

I love it, and I love that hippies apparently live there now.

Break it into co-housing with common areas and private suites. The assessment would be a killer, though.

So, at that price there must be something seriously wrong with the bones, right? It's about ready to collapse.

But in the months before its destruction, what a cool boho opportunity.

Only problem is that Yonkers is a total DUMP!

I can hear the wood rot and termites beckoning already. The tower room was apparently used to hold an errant Bowes-Lyon at some point. And I'm sure there's a reason why they don't show pics of all the rooms. The old real estate adage comes to mind: Never own the largest house on the block (especially in Yonkers.)

[quote] Priced to sell! —Sally Seller

I'll take it!

This is one of the greatest houses of its period. I hope it finds a sympathetic buyer.

What's a Bowes-Lyon?

Oh honey if ONLY there was a way to look up Bowes-Lyon with a free research tool.

it’s stunning!

You could make a fortune marketing this place as a unique NYC-adjacent B&B. "The palace of the chalice has the view that is true."

Or a set for films. Imagine all the wacky frau-friendly movies. "Thee sisters learn to live, love and laugh again while fixing up a mansion designed by their deranged great-great-aunt." Or horror films. "Three sisters are terrorized while fixing up an old mansion by the ghost of their great-great aunt."

In general, I like it BUT the kitchen area is awful. You'd have to gut that space and start over.

The windows in the turret look drafty.

The ceiling in the turret looks drafty.

I love it is it next to the highway/projects or is it falling apart, one room had the insulation in the ceiling exposed... super duper cheap!

I love it.

Who do I need to sacrifice on the altar to afford it?

Yonkers has such a bad rep that people who live on the eastern fringe lie and say they live in Bronxville. Because realtors lied to them when they were house hunting. Some people who buy houses in fake Bronxville are shocked when they get a property tax bill from Yonkers.

This house is clearly not well maintained - soooo many issues to take care of.

And Yonkers can be pretty ghetto.

You're going to have to put in a good 500,000 or more to take care of all the issues. Hard pass.

Click on "explore Alta Avenue" at OP's link to see why it's so cheap.

NYT Real Estate section has been pushing Yonkers hard for the past couple of years. A bunch of new developments just north of Riverdale along the river

All the bathrooms suck. but many of the rooms are pretty great. but yeah, the one room (i guess it's the turret) has no ceiling. there seems to be some real reno that needs to take place.

Poking around on Google Maps - the immediate neighborhood is quite nice, but the nearest major road has a check cashing store and a law office with dirty, beat-up, rolling metal shutters.

It's in rough shape... a lot of peeling paint and water stains down the wall. Classic example of someone with more house than they can afford and the house has suffered for it. Interesting house and, as someone who hates that late Victorian wood everywhere, it isn't as dim and awful as usual. Then again there's virtually no window coverings so it gets a lot of light.

Yonkers is destined to be gentrified. It might be smart to buy now.

Well now we know what Dolly did with Horace's money...

Looks like a house for a coven of witches. I love it!

Yonkers is pretty crappy

Exactly what I was thinking R30. I was wondering if that's where Mrs Levi lived after she became The Widow Vandergelder.

Yonkers is a curious place. Surrounded by wealthy suburbs (Tuckahoe, Scarsdale, Bronxville, Riverdale - which is really in the Bronx) and natural beauty (the Hudson, the view of the Palisades across the river) but in parts really ghetto. Could be swept up in the gentrification wave spreading out from New York City, but gentrification won't make those housing projects go away.

In the late 80s, Yonkers incurred contempt of court fines for refusing to build court-mandated public housing. HBO made a series about it.

R1 has never been to Yonkers.

lol at R12

I’m looking for a place and my realtor knows I love Bronxville and she’s trying to push Yonkers on me. No thanks.

I have no idea about Yonkers but the views and light are spectacular, practically from every windows.

Hmm, notice the real estate agent didn't show the Widow's Walk? I'll bet it's not structurally sound (I thought he was going to twist an ankle just going up those steps).

I bet that place is a beast to heat & cool

No pics of the main kitchen? I think the one shown here is the apartment kitchen.

guh...guh...GHOSTS!!!

That toilet where in order to sit on it, you'd have to bang your knees up against the bathtub/shower is insane. WTF.

Ghosts of drafty windows & a roof that needs to be replaced...

The ghost of Carol Channing.

Was this the inspiration?

No thank you.

Undistinguished but perhaps the place for tech-money people with no taste or eyes.

Undistinguished? It's a great example of the shingle style. The inside needs work.

When I hear Yonkers I always think of Hello Dolly. But I take it it's no longer like that judging from the comments on this thread.

R47 I'd say the problem was it is too distinguished.

Looks like shit inside. Looks like it's falling apart.

You notice Miss Realtor didn’t set foot on the “widow’s walk”, so named because the late owner of the home did.

How far is it from Manhattan?