Amy Schumer and 19 Cranberry Street (Corcoran)
Amy Schumer is no stranger to a good plot twist, and her latest one involves real estate. Back in 2022, she made waves by selling her Upper West Side penthouse and snapping up a historic Brooklyn Heights townhouse—the one made famous in Moonstruck, where Cher and Olympia Dukakis bickered with charm. Now, just three years later, Schumer is listing that same home for $14 million and heading back to Manhattan.
The reason? A tale as old as time: school drop-offs. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Schumer and her husband, chef Chris Fischer, want to be closer to their son’s school. While she admits she’ll miss the neighborhood, she’s ready to pass the keys to a new owner, saying, “This is a home that is just ready for more people.”
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Located at 19 Cranberry Street, the corner townhouse dates back to 1829, with a later addition of a mansard roof giving it a Second Empire flair. If you’ve watched Moonstruck, you’ve already taken a tour— as the home played a starring role as the Castorini family’s residence.
The landmarked Brooklyn Heights townhouse Amy Schumer has just put on the market (Modlin Group) | https://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/brooklyn-heights/19-cranberry-street/apartment-/aXKUOqcIPP
With over 5,500 square feet, five bedrooms, and a backyard redesigned by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh (the guy behind Brooklyn Bridge Park), this place is hardly a starter home. Schumer added her own touches, replacing a brick patio with turf and adding a playset—because what’s a multimillion-dollar townhouse without a good swing? Another cool feature: the excavated basement, which houses a wine cellar and home gym, where Schumer keeps a photo of legendary sports icon Billie Jean King for inspiration.
Schumer’s soon-to-be-former home sits in Brooklyn Heights, the city’s first-ever designated historic district. The elevated neighborhood is renowned for charming tree-lined streets, impeccably preserved rowhouses (many predating the Civil War), and yes—very involved rules about renovations. Any exterior updates withing the historic district require the blessing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but the trade-off is worth it: homes in this and other protected districts tend to hold their value, even in shaky markets. More importantly, they safeguard the city’s history, ensuring these storied streets remain for generations to come.
The city's designated historic districts remind us of our rich past. (Gay Street in the West Village via Brown Harris Stevens)
To offset some of the expense, owners of landmarked buildings may be eligible for tax credits. To support the advocacy for all of New York City's historic neighborhoods, visit the Historic Districts Council (HDC). Below, we take a look at some of the most beautiful historic districts in New York City and listings available in them.
Brooklyn Heights Historic District
The Brooklyn Heights Historic District was the first designated historic district following the creation of Landmarks in 1965, and the first neighborhood to be protected in its entirety. Otis Pratt Pearsall, co-chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission of the Brooklyn Heights Association, testified that, “The interesting old buildings arrayed on irregular streets, with unexpected vistas, emanates an appearance and even more a spirit of character of Old New York, which no single part thereof, and certainly no individual Landmark, could possibly provide.”
62 Montague Street, #10C (Atelier WM LLC)
19 Cranberry Street, #TH
$14,000,000
Brooklyn Heights | Townhouse | 5 Bedrooms, Unknown Baths | 5,568 ft2
19 Cranberry Street, #TH (Modlin Group LLC)
South Street Seaport Historic District
South Street Seaport via CityRealty
As the South Street Seaport makes a comeback following the damage of Superstorm Sandy, none of it will come at the expense of the brick buildings dating as far back as the mid-18th century. Before the seaport became a tourist hot spot, it was one of the leading ports in the nation and played an important part in the city’s shipping trade. As the designation report from 1977 says, “the South Street Seaport Historic District serves as an important reminder of the early commercial development and history of New York City.”
View over the South Street Seaport towards the Brooklyn Bridge (Compass)
The Walton, #5B (Sothebys International Realty)
Tribeca West Historic District
Before Tribeca’s trendy portmanteau name was established, the area was known as Washington Market for its status as New York’s main food market. The industrial area was home to some of the city’s earliest cast iron buildings as well as warehouses and lofts in the Italianate and Romanesque Revival style. The Tribeca West Historic District was the first to be designated in 1991; Tribeca North, South, and East would be designated historic districts just over a year later.
View over the Tribeca West Historic District
The Schepp Building, #3D (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)
55 North Moore Street, #4R (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)
Soho Cast-Iron Historic District
Soho streetscape via CityRealty
Almost all of Soho is located within the Soho Cast-Iron Historic District, which is named in honor of the facades of many of the buildings in the area. Just as artists were instrumental in drawing renewed attention to what was once an abandoned industrial area, they played a key role in the historic district designation: When plans for the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX) would have required the demolition of much of Soho and Little Italy, artists banded together with preservationists to save the architecture and defeat the LOMEX. A few years later, the Soho-Cast Iron Historic District was designated.
477 Broome Street, #62 (Coldwell Banker Warburg)
59 Wooster Street, #3E (Compass)
Greenwich Village Historic District
“Of the Historic Districts in New York City which have been designated or will be designated, Greenwich Village outranks all others. This supremacy comes from the quality of its architecture, the nature of the artistic life within its boundaries, and the feeling of history that permeates its streets.” So says the designation report of 1965, when city streets from St. Luke’s Place to 13th Street fell within the boundaries of the Greenwich Village Historic District. The streets are lined with free-standing mansions and rowhouses in a variety of eye-catching architecture styles not found anywhere else in New York.
17 West 10th Street, #1N (Elegran LLC)
571 Hudson Street, #2D (The Agency Brokerage)
302 West 12th Street, #11E (Sothebys International Realty)
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77 Bedford Street, # (Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC)
Gramercy Park Historic District
Perhaps no neighborhood in the city is as well protected as the streets surrounding Gramercy Park. The green space at the heart of it is the only private park in the city, open only to keyholders, and the Italianate, Greek Revival, and Gothic Revival style houses lining the park fall firmly within the boundaries of the Gramercy Park Historic District. A book published in 1921 said, “The laying out of Gramercy Park represents one of the earliest attempts in this country of ‘City Planning,’” and the historic district would be designated in 1966.
The Irving, #8E (Sothebys International Realty)
36 Gramercy Park East, #8ST
$1,895,000 (-2.8%)
Gramercy Park | Condominium | 2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths | 885 ft2
36 Gramercy Park East, #8ST (Corcoran Group)
The Gramercy, #MAF (Compass)
Ladies Mile Historic District
From the mid-19th to early 20th century, a stretch of what is now known as Chelsea or the Flatiron District - from 15th to 24th Streets, from Sixth Avenue to Park Avenue South - was home to fashionable retailers like Lord & Taylor and Arnold Constable on Broadway, and B. Altman, R.H. Macy, and Siegel-Cooper on Sixth Avenue. The retailers eventually moved to Midtown, but the loft buildings, early skyscrapers, and buildings in the Beaux-Arts, Neo-Renaissance, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne styles remained. When the historic district was designated, Anthony Wood, then-president of the Historic Districts Council, said, “This is not only a celebration of the past, it enriches the future.”
Holtz House, #7R (Elegran LLC)
The Sohmer Piano Building, #PH
$25,000,000
Flatiron/Union Square | Condominium | 5 Bedrooms, Unknown Baths | 5,777 ft2
The Sohmer Piano Building, #PH (Sothebys International Realty)
141 Fifth Avenue, #11D
$3,500,000
Flatiron/Union Square | Condominium | 2 Bedrooms, Unknown Baths | 1,813 ft2
141 Fifth Avenue, #11D (CORE Group Marketing LLC)
The Folio House, #7A (Sothebys International Realty)
Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District
Some of the city’s most eye-catching architecture can be found along Central Park West, but the French flats and rowhouses on the side streets came first and are not to be overlooked. Churches and museums along the park were designed in similarly grand architectural styles and additionally fall under Landmarks’ protection. The historic district was designated in 1990, and the neighborhood is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Central Park West views via Compass
The Eldorado, #9K (Compass)
28 West 74th Street, #2B2C (Corcoran Group)
The Beresford, #14A (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)
The Kenilworth, #11NORTH (Compass)
Upper East Side Historic District
The Upper East Side would seem to encapsulate the history of New York City’s architecture: Italianate and Greek Revival brownstones can be found on side streets, luxurious single-family mansions took shape in the area and alongside Central Park, and it was home to some of the city’s first luxury multi-family buildings, designs by J.E.R. Carpenter and Rosario Candela among them. This mix of architectural styles and types were instrumental in the Upper East Side Historic District's designation in 1981.
24 East 82nd Street, #1A (Sothebys International Realty)
630 Park Avenue, #9B (Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC)
655 Park Avenue, #7D
$3,850,000
Park/Fifth Ave. to 79th St. | Cooperative | 3 Bedrooms, 3 Baths | 2,351 ft2
655 Park Avenue, #7D (Corcoran Group)
4 East 72nd Street, #34B
$8,750,000
Park/Fifth Ave. to 79th St. | Cooperative | 3 Bedrooms, Unknown Baths
4 East 72nd Street, #34B (Sothebys International Realty)
10 East 67th Street, #TH
$44,950,000
Park/Fifth Ave. to 79th St. | Townhouse | 6+ Bedrooms, 6+ Baths | 13,107 ft2
10 East 67th Street, # (Serhant)
Hamilton Heights Historic District
Hamilton Heights via Cororan
Put aside the neighborhood's namesake - much of its development took place decades after Alexander Hamilton’s death: Between 1885 and 1909, the Upper Manhattan neighborhood saw a pleasing mix of low-rise apartment buildings, brick houses, and churches of many popular architectural styles take shape on its tree-lined streets. The Hamilton Heights Historic District was designated in 1974, and extended in 2000.
463 West 142nd Street, #2A (463 West 142nd Street is located just outside the historic district) | Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing LLC
475 West 144th Street, #TH
$2,299,999 (-9.8%)
Hamilton Heights | Townhouse | 6+ Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths | 4,608 ft2
475 West 144th Street, # (Serhant)
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
Just complete the info below.
Or call us at (212) 755-5544
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
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