Real Estate

Storied Ridge Gingerbread House for sale

April 12, 2012 Helen Klein
Photo courtesy of Alpine Realty.
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Bay Ridge only has two landmark homes, and one of them is up for sale.

The one-of-a-kind “Gingerbread House,” at 8220 Narrows Avenue, is listed for sale by Alpine Realty for $11 million.

The unique structure stands out on numerous counts. The building is 5,800 square feet on property that is 20,000 square feet in size. “It’s very rare to find a house this large, and property this large in Brooklyn,” noted real estate agent Harry Chalbis, of Alpine Realty, who is showing the property.

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Some of the rooms are the size of small apartments. The bedroom is about 800 square feet, and has five walk-in closets, a powder room and two stone terraces, said Chalbis. The den is about 650 square feet and the kitchen is 570 square feet, not counting the 20-foot-long butler’s pantry.

But, size is just the beginning of the home’s charms.

Designed by architect James Sarsfield Kennedy, the quirky structure was constructed in 1917 in the Arts and Craft style and is renowned in Bay Ridge and beyond for such details as its façade of rough uncut stone and an irregular roof designed to look like thatch.

It is precisely those details that attracted the current owners – who purchased it in 1984 with Chalbis acting as broker. Jerry Fishman used to walk by the house on a regular basis, as a boy growing up in Bay Ridge, and wanted to own it even then. So enamored was he of the home that he took wife Diane past the house on their very first date.

“It’s always been my husband’s dream,” said Diane Fishman. “We have been blessed and lucky to live here. It’s a very romantic house, a very inspirational house. It’s our dream-come-true to live here, and maybe someone else’s as well.”

While the house is chockfull of details, some stand out. Among these are vaulted ceilings in the dining room with hand-painted canvases, and a pastoral plaster relief ornamenting the den, as well as handmade tiles, stained glass insets imported from Europe in the doors, and handcrafted fireplaces.

The home’s connection with nature is reinforced at every turn. Built partially into a hillside, the architecture is designed to mimic that, said Fishman, and make it look like it’s a natural extension of the land that embraces it.

The Gingerbread House was the first building in Bay Ridge to be designated a landmark, back in 1988. Subsequently, the Bennett-Farrell House on 95th Street between Shore Road and Marine Avenue also received landmark designation.


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