No-Fee Quirky Vinegar Hill Two-Bedroom With Mantels, Shared Garden Asks $2,600 a Month

More funky old New York than white box living, this two-bedroom Vinegar Hill rental has a shared hallway situation that might not be to everyone’s taste, but in return it’s got two floors of living space, atmospherically patinaed spaces and access to a garden.

It’s located in one of the surviving 19th century row houses in the Vinegar Hill Historic District, at 247 Front Street. Built circa 1846 by developer John Ross, the three-story house is one in a stretch of seven Greek Revival-style residences that are surrounded by the mix of industrial, commercial and new residential construction that typifies the area.

The apartment takes up the garden and parlor levels of the house. It has two bedrooms, a full bath and access to the garden on the lower level and a living room and kitchen on the floor above. As the listing notes, the hallway on each floor is common space, shared with the other units in the building. So you might bump into a neighbor on your morning stumble from the bedroom to the coffee maker in the kitchen.

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The living room faces the street and has the quirky mix of finishes that typify the apartment: wide planked floorboards, exposed brick, and partially stripped doors and moldings. There’s also a Greek Revival dark marble mantel with iron insert.

A wide doorway with period ear moldings leads to the large combined kitchen and dining room, which has an eclectic mix of wood cabinets and white appliances. A windowed pantry off the kitchen could be put to use as an office. There’s a half bath on this level and the video tour shows it has shelving and a toilet, but no sink.

Downstairs there’s a bedroom at either end and one of those has an adjoining half bath, again with a toilet but no sink. The only full bath in the apartment is located on this level across the common hallway. While there’s no laundry in the unit there is a shared washer/dryer in the building.

The listing describes the shared backyard as like “a step into a Dickens novel.” Presumably that does not mean filled with orphans and bleak poverty, although there is an atmospheric stone wall ruin with an iron door that perhaps could stand in for the Marshalsea prison in “Little Dorrit.” The garden looks fairly deep and it has planting beds, a bench and a stone patio with grill.

The no-fee apartment is listed with Andrea Vivier and Taylor Collins of Brown Harris Stevens for $2,600 a month. Worth the price?

[Listing: 247 Front Street, #1 | Broker: Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP

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