This New York Townhouse  Is One of the Last of Its Kind

This New York Townhouse Is One of the Last of Its Kind

Tucked between Park and Lexington on one of the Upper East Side’s most picturesque blocks, 123 East 73rd Street is a rare architectural survivor. Built in 1903 at the height of New York’s Colonial Revival craze, this 25-foot-wide, 102-foot-deep townhouse still commands attention more than a century later—with its brick-and-limestone neo-Georgian façade and over 11,000 square feet of layered, livable space.

Recently listed at $28,500,000 with Recently listed at $28,500,000 with Epo Manning and Florence Danforth-Meyer of Sotheby’s International Realty, the property is currently temporarily off-marketof Sotheby’s International Realty, the property is currently temporarily off-market—but its significance, scale, and story make it impossible to ignore.

The interior layout is tailored to both grandeur and function: seven bedrooms, eight full baths, three half baths, and three kitchens—including a full garden-level chef’s kitchen, a second-floor butler’s kitchen, and a fifth-floor kitchenette for ease of living across floors. Add in a gym, temperature-controlled wine cellar, elevator, dumbwaiter, multiple walk-in closets, and a functional workshop, and you start to understand the home’s rare balance of elegance and practicality.

On the garden level, French doors span the rear wall, opening onto a tranquil, leafy backyard. Above, the formal parlor floor features 12-foot ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, and well-proportioned spaces for hosting. The full-floor primary suite offers two windowed baths, two walk-in closets, and a fireplace. A sunlit gym directly across the hall—complete with en-suite bath—could convert to an additional bedroom, library, or private study.

The home includes three distinct outdoor spaces: a private garden, a fourth-floor balcony, and a landscaped rooftop terrace. And yes—the sidewalks are heated.

But what truly sets this townhouse apart is its storied past.

Designed by architect Robert Burnside Potter in 1903, the home was originally commissioned by his wife, Elizabeth, and quickly became a gathering place for New York’s early 20th-century elite. In 1910, it hosted a dinner dance for 160 guests thrown by Ethel Iselin Goodridge, a prominent society figure descended from three of New York’s most historic colonial families—Morris (signers of the Constitution), Gouverneur (early merchants and landowners), and Philipse (once among the largest landholders in pre-Revolutionary New York).

In later decades, it was the site of a Vanderbilt family wedding, when Barbara Schieffelin—a direct descendant of both John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, and Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt—married British aristocrat Charles Ion Carr Bosanquet in front of New York society’s finest.

By midcentury, the house belonged to Frederick H. Osborn, a former Commander of the Advance Zone for the American Red Cross during WWI and a Major General under FDR, who later chaired the U.S. Army’s welfare efforts during WWII. It was eventually purchased by Michel Fribourg, the Belgian-born CEO of ContiGroup, who made international headlines in 1964 for brokering an $80 million grain deal with the Soviet Union, a landmark Cold War trade move.

The full story, rich in detail and society lore, is worth a deep dive via Daytonian in Manhattan.

All photos belong to the listing agency.

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