The home at 280 Washington Ave. in New York City may look like the typical Brooklyn brownstone but the building has a hidden bar and is connected to one of the most successful companies in American history.
The Queen Anne-style mansion was built in 1887 for Charles Erhart, who was a co-founder of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer along with his cousin and later brother-in-law, Charles Pfizer. The Pfizer Mansion — as it's nicknamed — has had many owners since its first resident, but it's on the market again with an asking price of $10.3 million.
The five-story residence has six bedrooms, six bathrooms and eight fireplaces across 10,000 square feet. The property also offers a library, a wine cellar and a speakeasy.
"That's a relic of something that was likely built in secret — likely during Prohibition," Wendy Maitland of Atelier WM, the listing agent, said of the speakeasy in an interview.
When other potential buyers see the home, they will be impressed the moment they walk in the door, Maitland said, adding that house hunters will notice the stained glass, high ceilings and original crown moldings.
"They'll see the original millwork, then the living room is revealed, and the sheer breadth of the space on the main floor is just stunning," she said.
The Pfizer Mansion sits in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, which is known for its pre-Civil War architecture. The area has preserved single-family mansions dating back to the 1800s that come with Victorian, Romanesque and Beaux-Arts-style facades.
In Clinton Hill, multifamily townhouses with parquet floors and original fireplaces sell anywhere from $1.5 million to $3.5 million. Large condos and co-ops can go for up to $1.8 million.
Home prices in Clinton Hill are climbing because the area is in the middle of a renaissance, Maitland said. People have rediscovered the beauty of Fort Greene Park, driving up demand in a way that wasn't there a decade ago, she said.
Everyone who has owned the Pfizer Mansion has respected the history and unique architecture the home has, according to Maitland. The current owners have "taken down coats and coats of paint to reveal beautiful mahogany woodwork," she said.
"And it's just as pristine of millwork as when it was first built," Maitland added.
For most of its history, the mansion has never had a dedicated space for its owner to park a car, but that's changing. The current owners want to add a garage and have worked with city officials to make sure the structure will match the architectural look of the house, Maitland said. New York City's Landmark Preservation Committee has approved the designs, city documents show.
"That took years to design and go through the hurdles of making the design Landmark Preservation complaint," she said. "It cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — working with an architect, structural engineer, designers, and New York City building department reps."
The ideal new owner of 280 Washington is someone who needs a lot of space but has an appreciation for the home's "history and architecture that could never be repeated today," Maitland said. Whoever buys the place will also have access to the new garage without having to do any of the bureaucratic work it took to get it built, she said.