Harlem – In the Footsteps of Hamiltons and Tenenbaums
A year ago, as soon as Xavier Joly and Emilie Johnson returned from a three-year stay in Paris, they moved into a two-bedroom Upper West Side rental for $3,300 a month. Ms. Johnson would have been glad to remain there indefinitely, but Mr. Joly immediately began the hunt for something different.
He insisted on a house — specifically, a house in Harlem, having been inspired by the movie “Royal Tenenbaums,” which was filmed at a house on Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights.
“Xavier is French and finds some things in American culture really compelling,” Ms. Johnson said. “He loved the house and would say, ‘Can you imagine having a house like that?’ When he has an idea for a project, he’s really driven.”
Mr. Joly had no interest in buying an apartment. What is the point of buying a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side, he asked, “when you can buy a whole house at the same price”?
The two hoped, eventually, to fill the house with children. Ms. Johnson, 30, is one of eight siblings from a Mormon family. Mr. Joly, 34, has one sister but also 14 aunts and uncles, and dozens of cousins.
When they met five years ago, Mr. Joly, a graduate of Toulouse Business School in France, was working in sales for a financial software company and living on the Upper West Side. Ms. Johnson, a graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, was living with a brother and a roommate in Clinton, teaching literature at the Harlem campus of the College of New Rochelle and supplementing her income at Restoration Hardware in the Flatiron district. A friend of Mr. Joly’s, visiting from Paris, stopped in to browse. Hearing his accent, Ms. Johnson said she would love to practice her French, so the friend put the two in touch. It was a case of “love at first chat,” she said.
The couple married in a Baptist church in Harlem and moved to Paris, where they bought a two-bedroom apartment in the 10th Arrondissement. Then Mr. Joly’s employer transferred him back to New York. Ms. Johnson now works as an assistant to a private-equity executive.
With a budget of around $1 million for a house, Mr. Joly focused enthusiastically on what he called “the magic square” in Harlem, between 110th and 125th Streets, and Morningside Park and Lenox Avenue. At first Ms. Johnson was hesitant about the whole enterprise.
“It was the scale of the task and also the level of commitment when you are buying a house,” she said. “I think Xavier likes exceptional things, and a house in Manhattan is kind of exceptional. He loved the idea of Harlem giving you a $300-a-square-foot price,” a far better deal than many other places on the island.
They were willing to undertake small renovations, but wanted a place in move-in condition that had plenty of original detail. “We could not afford renting an apartment for a while and renovating at the same time,” Mr. Joly said.
They liked a four-story house on West 120th Street, but four tenants were in place, and it was unclear what their status was. The house ended up selling, vacant, for $899,000.
They looked at a house on West 121st Street whose upper floors had been chopped into apartments. They were planning to make an offer when the house sold to an all-cash buyer for $1.15 million. “Good products like that left the market quickly,” Mr. Joly said.
By late summer, the couple felt there was nothing suitable in Harlem, so they took a detour to Brooklyn. A four-story house in Bedford-Stuyvesant was fully renovated, with a rental unit downstairs. The listing price was almost $1.2 million.
The house was appraised at just $700,000, Mr. Joly said, but “the seller argued that the comps used were not the right ones.” The couple made a halfhearted bid of $1.1 million. Negotiations stalled. The couple were secretly relieved. “The house was beautifully renovated,” Ms. Johnson said, “but it was kind of soulless.” Besides, Brooklyn seemed a long subway ride away.
The house was later listed at $995,000 and is now off the market.
Back in Upper Manhattan, they were unimpressed by an East Harlem house stripped of all interior detail, but the agent there mentioned a place for sale on 141st Street, northeast of City College. The listing price of $1.3 million was above their budget and the location was north of the magic square.
They walked over to see it and found a lovely corner house, 20 feet wide, in the Hamilton Heights Historic District. The main door had a “kind of oxidized panel that was a green color and I loved it,” Ms. Johnson said. “Those small details made me open my eyes wider.” Upon entering, “you are just sort of punched with the greatness of the house.”
Two large rooms flanked a wooden staircase. The kitchen was one flight below; two huge bedrooms were one flight above. The top floor had four smaller rooms. The house was flooded with light. Best of all, most of the interior was intact, down to the filigreed door hinges.
“Right away, we felt it was just what we were looking for,” Mr. Joly said. They were surprised but thrilled when their $1.1 million offer was accepted.
The couple moved in late last fall. Their home has a view of surrounding spires and of Hamilton Grange, the former home of Alexander Hamilton. The historic house inspired Ms. Johnson to read the 800-odd-page biography by Ron Chernow.
After living in apartments, she is still surprised “to come home to a house and have all of this space around you.” The couple have done some painting in the kitchen, and anticipate that various house projects will very likely keep them busy for years.
Outside, groups of tourists occasionally stop at the Grange, which was moved from its longtime location nearby in 2008, and is closed for renovations. The hilly two-way street carries wheezing traffic. “You have these old cars that are noisy,” especially when they chug uphill, Mr. Joly said.
They will never need to move for lack of space. Ms. Johnson’s family was itinerant, following her father’s job as a retail executive. “I don’t really have a place to call home,” she said, “so maybe that is my compelling reason for establishing a place we won’t move from.”
They are just a few blocks from the “Royal Tenenbaums” house, which they pass often. Their home, Mr. Joly said, is like a miniature version of that house, “and it has the same kind of good old spirit.”