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| Former East End duplex penthouse in New York City where song writer Irving Berlin and wife Ellin lived for 13 years in the 1930s and 1940s |
Photo credit: Warburg Realty
NEW YORK CITY, NY -- One of the
most prolific and important songwriters of the 20th century, Irving Berlin
lived in this East End duplex penthouse in New York City with his wife,
Ellin, which they bought in 1931 when he was 43.
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| Irving Berlin and wife Ellin (Photo credit: Alamy) |
According to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, they lived there for the next 13 years and no doubt inspired by its exceptional views over the East River and the city, it was where he wrote I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, Say It Isn’t So and introduced God Bless America, which he had written years earlier.
Occupying a duplex penthouse in
a building built in 1929, it is located in the East Side’s Yorkville
neighborhood advantageously situated overlooking the greenery of Carl Schurz
Park with wide river and city views from the terraces and large windows that
surround three sides of the home.
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| Debra Messing |
There is also a formal dining
room that opens to a four-season sunroom with access to the terrace.
The lower level also contains
the kitchen and one bedroom and bath formerly used as staff quarters. Upstairs
is a large library with a wall of windows that opens to the top terrace, two
bedrooms including the master, and two baths, all with mesmerizing views.
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| Ricky Martin |
New York’s hidden Yorkville neighborhood has
attracted the monied elite for years and has drawn celebrities such as actress Debra
Messing, singer Ricky Martin, baseball-star Johan Santana and
many other 20th-century notables.
Living in this apartment represented a major
achievement for Berlin, who was born in Siberia and whose parents immigrated to
New York when he was a child.
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| Johan Santana |
He forged a living from the only thing he could think of to do -
singing in local establishments and writing songs he thought the locals would
enjoy.
By the time Berlin and his wife moved into this apartment, he had
written hundreds of songs and was fast becoming known as the songwriter who
represented the soul of America with songs and lyrics that appealed to the
average American.
In his lifetime of 101 years,
Berlin’s songs have become a large part of the Great American Songbook.
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Already a legend at age 30, by his death in 1989 he had written
over 1,500 songs, the scores for 20 Broadway shows and 15 films with eight of
those songs nominated for Academy Awards.
Berlin’s passion for his adopted
country was evident through his music and the way he assigned royalties in
order to give back to organizations like the Girl and Boy Scouts and the World
War II war effort, which accrued millions.
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| Irving Berlin in a playful mood |
Throughout his life he returned
to the neighborhoods where he struggled to survive as a young boy reminding
himself of the gift of opportunity that the United States had provided.
The Upper East Side duplex
penthouse is listed by Jane Andrews
with Warburg Realty, Madison
Avenue in New York City.
CONTACT:
Genelle C. Brown
Content Manager, Media Division
TopTenRealEstateDeals.com
Phone: 434-480-4504
Twitter: @toptenrealestat
facebook.com/toptenrealestat
Content Manager, Media Division
TopTenRealEstateDeals.com
Phone: 434-480-4504
Twitter: @toptenrealestat
facebook.com/toptenrealestat
