238 E 49TH ST

Built in 1866, Number 238 rises five stories over a cellar. It has approximately 4,600 square feet on a 19 by 100-foot lot, a newly restored limestone-toned facade, and a paneled elevator serving every level. Its interiors were shaped by its 1960s occupant, Pierre Scapula, the Parisian designer whose commissions included yacht interiors for Stavros Niarchos and the New York and Paris homes of Princess Lee Radziwill. Scapula is responsible for the French ambiance we see in the house today. Later, the house became the New York residence of the first European Union Representative to the United Nations. At present it is restored to museum quality standard in the spirit of the eighteenth century.

Upon entering you are greeted by the sequence of rooms mandatory to classic townhouse architecture: Anteroom, Grand Salon and Drawing Room.

First, you arrive at the room-size Foyer, which provides access to the whole house by elevator while assuring privacy to the other floors. Here the paneling is simple, patterned after the Guard Hall outside the Louis XV private suite at Versailles, and the marble flooring pattern, the bombé chest, the mirrors and the sconces are all appropriate to the period. A guest closet and the Gold and Onyx Powder Room, in the flamboyant Rococo style, open off it.

Next, you ascend the wide stairway, which is not fully enclosed by walls and allows a visual connection from the space below to the mirrors and crystal chandelier of the Grand Salon. Here are twelve-foot ceilings and three-hundred-year-old Île-de-France style paneling and a fireplace, both brought from France by Scapula. The woodburning fireplace works. The large mirror trumeau contains a painting by Nicolas Lancret (1690-1742), and the electrified antique crystal chandelier came from the residence of the Baroness Albuquerque in the Dakota. Twin French doors open to a balcony overlooking the tranquility of the garden. Parquet de Versailles flooring, antique furnishing and an integrated sound system complete this exceptional room.

Adjoining is the Drawing Room, styled by Scapula as a Salle de Glace, or mirror room, in which he replicated an eighteenth-century favorite with authentically proportioned panels and gold leaf moldings. Enclosed bookcases, doré bronze lighting fixtures and a large desk allow the space to be used as an office, a library or additional entertaining space.

One floor above is the Primary Suite, paneled in French oak in an au cappuccine finish. The imported French fireplace is topped by a canvas mural more than a hundred years old, "The Construction of the Roman Forum," brought back to New York from his honeymoon by the first owner of 238. There are two walk-in closets and built-in storage, and adjoining is the white Carrara marble bath with a six-foot soaking tub and double sinks.

On the same floor, at the front of the building, is the Guest Room, styled in the manner of a small Chambre de Parade and notable for its bed hangings and paneling. The walls are covered in Scalamandré silk, and the room is furnished in the Louis XV style. The ensuite windowed bath is finished in green marble with a large, rare purple marble vanity sink, and the dressing bath contains closets and built-in storage.

On the floor above is a Venetian decorated bedroom overlooking the garden, with a fireplace, three tilt-and-turn windows, a dressing room with a white vanity sink and gold fixtures and legs, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom finished in five kinds of marble. At the front there is a two-room-and-bath staff suite which can be shut off from the rest of the house and reached by elevator. Even here wonders abound: the headboard is a high-quality bronze casting that now appears to have come from an overdoor panel of the long-demolished north facade of Grand Central Terminal.

At last , the fifth-floor penthouse, done in a mid-century modern style, entirely different from the rest of the house. This is the Party Room, glass walled front and back, with ten-foot-high glass sliding doors on the south garden side and terraces at either end. Are we in a tree house? Maybe so. There is a wet bar, a full bath, and a sound system, perfect for informal entertaining .

Back to one of the grandest rooms: the Grand Salon has access to a second stairway down to the Kitchen, the Dining Room, the outdoor dining terrace, the planted garden and the Turtle Bay common garden.

The kitchen can be used in its open or closed position and is equipped with two sinks, two ovens, two dishwashers, and a forty-eight-inch Subzero. Cabinets are abundant, counters are Corian, and ventilation is provided by a rooftop mushroom fan.

The banquet-size Dining Room has glass walls to the garden, Crema Madera marble floors in twenty-four-inch squares, a working woodburning Empire style fireplace, paneling and sculptural decorations, and a faux marble cornice installed by Scapula. The built-in buffet has a Corian top convenient for serving. A large dining table and two china cabinets complete the room.

Immediately outside is the granite dining terrace with an outdoor table, chairs, and plants. Wide stairs ascend to a slate terrace with plantings, curved stone benches, ferns in urns, a statue of Summer modelled after the Four Seasons statues at Versailles, and an iron gate to the common gardens, both the statue and the gate installed by Scapula.

The cellar holds a wine cellar whose natural rock walls keep an even temperature, plus a laundry with two washers, two dryers and a sink. There are four zones of central air conditioning and individual room heat controls. In total, the house has five full baths, a powder room, three terraces, a private yard, and access to the common garden.

The house is offered fully furnished with antiques and period pieces gathered over generations.

The Turtle Bay Gardens Historic District was landmarked by the City of New York on June 21, 1966, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Along this row and across the garden, the houses have been home to Katharine Hepburn, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Dylan, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, and E. B. White, who closed Here Is New York with the garden's old willow.

Single-family home. One-year minimum lease. Shown by appointment.