The original owner was a female member of the illustrious Vanderbilt family who married a man named Hatch, hence the residence's long-standing designation—at least to those who pay attention to such things—as Hatch House. Later owners of Hatch House, as listed in detail in The Post, by the kids at Curbed, and on the deliciously informative Daytonian in Manhattan, included burlesque superstar Gypsy Rose Lee and A-list artist Jasper Johns. It was Mister Johns who sold it to Mister Lee in 1998 for, as per at least one digitally accessible property record database, a bit more than $16.5 million.
Not for some looking but Your Mama has yet to turn up a digital listing for the impressive residence so, for now, details of its current configuration and decorative aspect remain a mouth-watering mystery. Previous descriptions of the property say it was built in the late-1910s, has 8,292 square feet arranged around a central courtyard with fountain.
At the time the house was occupied by Gypsy Rose Lee—that would have been sometime between 1940 and 1970—The Old Grey Lady Herself revealed the 26-room edifice had seven bathrooms, a marble-floor living room, and gold monograms on the doors. Decades and several owners later, in 2008, the Old Grey Lady Herself once again briefly described the Lee residence as in "near-original shape." Fascinating stuff, for sure. Your Mama would probably let our occasionally vengeful house gurl Svetlana run us right over with a Cadillac or maybe even an old Pontiac iffin that would mean we could see the floor plan and listing photos right now, wouldn't you?
photo: Michael Skalski for Property Shark
