Christie’s International Real Estate Group
Here’s your chance to own a page of New York’s literary history.
In The Bronx, a 10,000-square-foot mansion formerly owned by the late poet Stanley Moss is on the market again with a new — and discounted — asking price, The Post has learned.
The writer, who died in July at age 99, attempted to sell this half-Gothic, half-Colonial Revival home in 2023 for $4.5 million, but that was an artist’s delusion, Leslie Hirsch of Christie’s International Real Estate told The Post.
“Now that Mr. Moss passed away and it’s being handled by his estate, they’re motivated to sell it,” said Hirsch, who relisted the property, which stands in affluent Riverdale, for $3.79 million on Friday.
Dubbed the Henry L. Atherton Villa after its original builder, 5247 Independence Ave. is on arguably the most famous street in the Riverdale Historic District, which has 34 residences. John F. Kennedy Jr. himself lived at 5040 Independence Ave. in the 1920s, according to history archives.
It’s unclear when Moss bought the home, though property records show it may have been in the 1980s.
While only minorly renovated in the last few decades, the three-story house is in good shape and can easily accommodate updates like central air-conditioning, Hirsch said.
What it lacks in modernity, it makes up for with views. A rear deck and balcony look past Riverdale Park, across the Hudson River to the Palisades, and a porthole in the third-floor bathroom gives the perfect peek at the George Washington Bridge.
“The sunsets are unbelievable,” Hirsch added.
Downstairs, a grand entrance leads to a parlor with one of several original fireplaces.
Adjacent spaces include a large kitchen, a living room with glass doors to the veranda and an attached greenhouse. There are two libraries on this level, also with fireplaces, of which one served as Moss’s study.
Much of his poetry was penned in that room, with plentiful mentions of the river, said Greg Miller, a fellow poet whom Moss named a “literary executor” of his will.
“The views of the Hudson just take your breath away, over and over again,” Miller said.
The pair met in 2013 after Miller responded to an online ad Moss posted requesting an editorial assistant. They spent countless hours, “surrounded by art,” in Moss’s study, Miller said.
Having doubled as a dealer after acquiring high-society friends on trips to Europe, Moss filled the home’s ample walls and extra rooms with his personal collection.
“It was like walking in an art gallery,” Miller said of his time in the home.
Heading upstairs, a split-level staircase with ample river views leads to nine bedrooms on the second and third floors, including a primary suite with terrace access.
Five full and three half baths are found throughout the upper levels and walkout basement.
In his younger years, The Moss family hosted parties with Robert Lowell, W.H. Auden and a who’s who of other artists and writers. A half-circle driveway and a covered porte-cochere and car port greeted the guests of Moss and his wife, Jane Moss, a former Columbia University professor.
“‘A lot of famous butts sat on that couch,’” Moss liked to boast, Miller said.