Since I moved to New York, I've been playing a little game with myself that I call the buzzer game. When I see a particularly nice brownstone, or a mansion-sized building that could be a museum or an embassy, I look for the buzzer. If there's a series of buzzers, the building's been converted into apartments. If there's just one buzzer, someone very lucky has a lot of space to themselves. I always end up daydreaming about what the inside of the home might be like.
So I was floored by this New York Magazine story about 190 Bowery. It's a six-story former bank built in 1899 that photographer Jay Maisel bought in 1966 for $102,000 and turned it into a home. The whole building! Can you imagine? The pictures are fascinating.
This might be the ultimate "single buzzer" home in New York.
All photos by Leigh Davis for New York Mag.
