Pomander Walk — The Locker-Polding Index

Pomander Walk today via — Pomander Walk today *via*

One of the major selling points of my mom’s Upper West Side apartment is the view of the Hudson; if you press your cheek against the glass and stand on your tippy toes, you can see the river!” But even better is the view from the other side of the apartment, which overlooks one of my favorite secret spots in Manhattan: Pomander Walk.

On the 94th Street block from Broadway to West End is a black gate. Beyond it is a staircase, blocking the rest from view. But from above, you can see that there are two rows of bright Tudor-style townhouses, separated by a little private road: a tiny, self-contained cartoon village. It’s amazing.

"Scene from Pomander Walk" via — "Scene from Pomander Walk" *via*

It turns out the little street was inspired by a 1910 Broadway romantic-comedy of the same name. The playwright, Louis K. Parker, described the scene by writing that “You might have thought the houses were meant to be inhabited by very small dukes, so stately were they in their tiny way.”

A postcard from the 1920s via — A postcard from the 1920s *via*

Ten years after the play ended its Broadway run, a restaurateur and club owner named Thomas Healy commissioned the firm of King & Campbell to build a set of townhomes and apartments based on the play. The project was meant to bring in enough money for Healy to build a hotel on the property, but he died in 1927 before he could demolish Pomander Walk.

In 1982, the complex was named a New York landmark, and soon after went co-op. Today, the townhouses sell for around $2 million, but the tiny studios for usually less than $400,000.

The sign, via