The 250-year-old structure in the South Street Seaport District had a colorful past before a developer converted it to apartments in the 1990s
3 min
An apartment atop the third oldest building still standing in Manhattan has hit the market for $1.825 million.
The two-bedroom duplex occupies the top two floors of the Captain Joseph Rose house in the South Street Seaport District, the third oldest building in Manhattan after the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights and St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center. In 1773 it was a fashionable two-story home for Rose, a successful lumber merchant, but its more colourful history came a century later, during the Civil War era, when it was the site an infamous saloon known as “Kit Burns’ Rat Pit,” run by one of the founders of the Dead Rabbits gang.
Today, the 1,424-square-foot unit shows few signs of its unsavoury past. Located on a cobblestoned side street, the building still retains its brick facade and original Georgian-style, but the upper floors were added after a fire in 1904, and the interiors were completely restored by architect Oliver Lundquist when the building was converted to condos in 1997.
The sellers, who purchased the unit for $1.575 million in 2022, listed the property with Lindsey Stokes and Allison Venditti of Compass on Tuesday.
When Rose built the home on Water Street, the isle of Manhattan was smaller, and the home had direct access to the East River where he docked his merchant ship, Industry . By the turn of the century the ground floor had been converted to commercial use, and it was used as an apothecary, a cobbler shop, a watchmakers’ shop and a grocery.
By the 1860s, the bustling South Street Seaport had begun to decline as shipping lines moved to larger ports along the Hudson River, and the neighbourhood deteriorated. The Joseph Rose building was purchased by Christopher “Kit” Burns, who opened a saloon called Sportsman’s Hall, a den of vice most notable for its rat pit—the largest in the city—where Burns staged “rat baiting” events, in which caged dogs compete to kill rats while spectators bet on the outcome.
Journalist James W. Buel described Sportsman’s Hall in a book on American cities published in 1883. “This place was once an eating cancer on the body municipal,” he wrote. “Within its crime begrimed walls have been enacted so many villainies, that the world has wondered why the wrath of vengeance did not consume it.”
In 1870, the saloon was shut down by the authorities, and Burns leased the building to the Williamsburg Methodist Church, which used it as a refuge for women. Burns, meanwhile, opened a rat pit down the block at 388 Water St.
As the years progressed, the building suffered fires in 1904 and again in 1976, after which it fell into disrepair and was seized for unpaid taxes. In 1997, the city sold the neglected building to developer Frank Sciame Jr. for just $1, who restored it and converted it to luxury condos.
The upper unit has traded hands several times in the decades since. Currently, the unit begins with a foyer that leads to an open plan living and dining area on the main level, with a staircase leading to two bedrooms on the upper level, and a private rooftop.
After purchasing the unit, the sellers worked with designer Lauryn Stone to renovate the upper level, reconfiguring the floor plan and remodelling the primary bathroom, according to Stokes. The interiors feature finished white oak floors and painted brick walls, with built-in shelves and a ventless fireplace in the living room, stone counters in the kitchen, a walk-in closet off the primary bedroom, and two rows of six-over-six panelled windows adding light and air.
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What a quarter-million dollars gets you in the western capital.
Alexandre de Betak and his wife are focusing on their most personal project yet.
Unmarried home buyers say they are giving priority to a financial foundation over a legal one
4 min
The big wedding can wait. Couples are deciding they would rather take the plunge into homeownership.
In reshuffling the traditional order of adult milestones, some couples may decide not to marry at all, while others say they are willing to delay a wedding. Buying a home is as much, if not more of a commitment, they reason. It helps them build financial stability when the housing market is historically unaffordable.
In 2023, about 555,000 unmarried couples said that they had bought their home in the previous year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Census Bureau data. That is up 46% from 10 years earlier, when just under 381,000 couples did the same.
Unmarried couples amounted to more than 11% of all U.S. home sales. The percentage has climbed steadily over the past two decades—a period in which marriage rates have fallen. These couples make up triple the share of the housing market that they did in the mid-1980s, according to the National Association of Realtors.
To make it work, couples must look past the significant risk that the relationship could blow up, or something could happen to one partner. Without a marriage certificate, living situations and finances are more likely to fall into limbo, attorneys say.
Mark White, 59 years old, and Sheila Davidson, 62, bought a lakeside townhouse together in Newport News, Va., in 2021. But only her name is on the deed. He sometimes worries about what would happen to the house if something happened to her. They have told their children that he should inherit the property, but don’t have formal documentation.
“We need to get him on the deed at some point,” Davidson said.
White and Davidson both had previous marriages, and decided they don’t want to do it again. They also believe tying the knot would affect their retirement benefits and tax brackets.
Couples that forgo or postpone marriage say they are giving priority to a financial foundation over a legal one. The median homeowner had nearly $400,000 in wealth in 2022, compared with roughly $10,000 for renters, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
Even couples that get married first are often focused on the house. Many engaged couples ask for down-payment help in lieu of traditional wedding gifts.
“A mortgage feels like a more concrete step toward their future together than a wedding,” said Emily Luk, co-founder of Plenty, a financial website for couples.
Elise Dixon and Nick Blue, both 29, watched last year as the Fed lifted rates, ostensibly pushing up the monthly costs on a mortgage. The couple, together for four years, decided to use $80,000 of their combined savings, including an unexpected inheritance she received from her grandfather, to buy a split-level condo in Washington, D.C.
“Buying a house is actually a bigger commitment than an engagement,” Dixon said.
They did that, too, getting engaged eight months after their April 2023 closing date. They are planning a small ceremony on the Maryland waterfront next year with around 75 guests, which they expect to cost less than they spent on the home’s down payment and closing costs.
The ages at which people buy homes and enter marriages have both been trending upward. The median age of first marriage for men is 30.2, and for women, 28.6, according to the Census Bureau. That is up from 29.3 and 27.0 a decade earlier. The National Association of Realtors reported this year that the median age of first-time buyers was 38, up from 31 in 2014.
Family lawyers—and parents—sometimes suggest protections in case the unmarried couple breaks up. A prenup-like cohabitation agreement spells out who keeps the house, and how to divide the financial obligations. Without the divorce process, a split can be even messier, legal advisers say.
Family law attorneys say more unmarried people are calling for legal advice, but often balk at planning for a potential split, along with the cost of drawing up such agreements, which can range from $1,000 to $3,000, according to attorney-matching service Legal Match.
Dixon, the Washington condo buyer, said she brushed off her mother’s suggestion that she draft an agreement with Blue detailing how much she invested, figuring that their mutual trust and equal contributions made it unnecessary. (They are planning to get a prenup when they wed, she said.)
There are a lot of questions couples don’t often think about, such as whether one owner has the option to buy the other out, and how quickly they need to identify a real-estate agent if they decide to sell, said Ryan Malet, a real-estate lawyer in the D.C. region.
The legal risks often don’t deter young home buyers.
Peyton Kolb, 26, and her fiancé figured that a 150-person wedding would cost $200,000 or more. Instead, they bought a three-bedroom near Tampa with a down payment of less than $50,000.
“We could spend it all on one day, or we could invest in something that would build equity and give us space to grow,” said Kolb, who works in new-home sales.
Owning a place where guests could sleep in an extra bedroom, instead of on the couch in their old rental, “really solidified us starting our lives together,” Kolb said. Their wedding is set for next May.
Homes and weddings have both gotten more expensive, but there are signs that home prices are rising faster. From 2019 to 2023, the median sales price for existing single-family homes rose by 44%, according to the National Association of Realtors. The average cost of a wedding increased 25% over that time, according to annual survey data from The Knot.
Roughly three quarters of couples move in together before marriage, and may already be considering the trade-offs between buying and renting. The cost of both has risen sharply over the past few years, but rent rises regularly while buying with a fixed-rate mortgage caps at least some of the costs.
An $800 rent hike prompted Sonali Prabhu and Ryan Willis, both 27, to look at buying. They were already paying $3,200 in monthly rent on their two-bedroom Austin, Texas, apartment, and felt they had outgrown it while working from home.
In October, they closed on a $425,000 three-bed, three-bath house. Their mortgage payment is $200 more than their rent would have been, but they have more space. They split the down payment and she paid about $50,000 for some renovations.
Her dad’s one request was that the house face east for good fortune, she said. Both parents are eagerly awaiting an engagement.
“We’re very solid right now,” said Prabhu, who plans to get married in 2026. “The marriage will come when it comes.”
