L’Engle’s Apt. Goes on the Market

The Upper West Side co-op where Madeleine L’Engle lived and worked for four decades just entered the market at $3.895 million. She and her husband, actor Hugh Franklin, moved into the posh Clebourne on West 105th Street in 1960, two years before the publication of A Wrinkle in Time. “They were pioneers,” says L’Engle’s granddaughter, writer Léna Roy, of their choice to live way north of 96th Street. The new owner will get a space with provenance—architectural and literary—intact: ten-foot ceilings, crown moldings, original bath tiles and hardwood floors, and a 26-foot-wide salon where L’Engle, who died in September, hosted parties and readings. Books line nearly every wall; in the kitchen, the only room recently renovated, refrigerator handles are shaped like giraffes, her favorite animal. “I’d be thrilled if it was someone arty,” says Roy. Voyeurs planning a walk-through will be disappointed: Given L’Engle’s ardent fan base, “we’re going to be screening people,” says listing co-broker Martin Krasnoff of Rand Realty.

SEE ALSO:
Madeleine L’Engle Obituary.

Have good intel? Send tips to intel@nymag.com.

L’Engle’s Apt. Goes on the Market