Just after last year became this year property gossips around the globe went hog wild with news of how internationally renown photographer Annie Leibovitz sold her pretty darn epic downtown New York City compound for $28.5 million for a then unknown buyer.
Turns out the mysterious buyers of the West Village compound are David Lauren and Lauren (Bush) Lauren, he the son of fashion icon Ralph Lauren and an executive at daddy's global enterprise and she the model turned philanthropic fashion designer granddaughter of former president George H.W. Bush and the niece of former president George W. Bush.
So what did the comely, so-far childless, prodigiously well-connected, and obviously exceedingly rich couple get for their $28.5 million? An attractive but not entirely seamless combination of three, vine-encrusted 19th-century townhouses with more than 10,000 square feet of interior space wrapped around private courtyard-style garden. Depending on how one counts the townhouse trio encompasses a total of ten (or so) bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, three kitchens, and 13 fireplaces.
Mister and Missus Lauren currently reside in the West Village, perhaps in the tiny, tucked away house on charming Charles Street that property records indicate was owned in the late 1990s by big-time model Shalom Harlow and acquired by Mister Lauren back in 2003 for $2,225,000.
listing photo: Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens