The Rockefellers on East 94 Street, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 17th 2010 at 1:01PM

Every wonder how today's Rockefellers live? Today's townhouse listing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan gives us a chance to sneak a peek. The Real Estalker led us to the Sotheby's Realty listing for what is said to be the home of Mark and Renee Rockefeller. Mark is the youngest son of the late Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, who was the 49th Governor of New York and the 41st U.S. Vice President (under President Gerald Ford).

The listing the Real Estalker Mama refers to as a "kooky crib" certainly boosts some of the most lavishly interesting decor we've seen in a while. Say farewell to money-doesn't-shout beige, this is a home that has been designed with some very attention getting decor.

The 25-foot-wide townhouse is 6,420 square feet. It has five floors plus a full basement with a wine vault, laundry room and exercise room. The four-bedroom home has one of the most amazing libraries I have ever seen, especially if you are a connoisseur of dead things. It has gleaming lacquered walls with animal skulls in front of a black and white marble fireplace surround and exotic animal heads and fur pillows atop tufted couches. The home makes bold use of wallpaper prints, notice-me-now furniture and dramatic light fixtures. As the Real Estalker aptly puts it, "this is not your blue-blooded grandma's townhouse." It appears to be the sort of house one either adores or abhors. Public records show that "Maren Properties" (which is likely an abbreviation of Mark "Mar" and Renee "Ren") of 30 Rockefeller Plaza paid $10.8 million for the home in June 2005. The home was on the market in 2008 for $18.5 million but can now be had for $15.5 million.

Gallery: The Rockefellers on East 94th Street

Tags: estate of the day, manhattan real estate, new york city real estate, new york real estate, rockefellers

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DJ Wetzel May 17th 2010 1:41PM

For that kind of money...someone needs to tell them to get the pictures of their children off the walls...not to mention the heads of their dead conquests.

stalban9 May 17th 2010 3:08PM

Love it! Loved it on Real Estalker, too. What a sense of drama! Admittedly, I would take down the photograph of the kids and have it replaced with some portraiture, but this placed needs to be enjoyed with elan and not lived in with boredom.

DJ with you on the dead conquests - could live without that quite easily - but I do love the hands atop the ladder in the study. Very Tim Burton. In fact, they'd be the perfect tenants - Tim Burton and Helena Bonham-Carter. Or me.

RD. May 17th 2010 8:11PM

Leave the kids up. They're most valuable thing in the house.

Mark Perkins May 18th 2010 8:21PM

You guys are hilarious.

T. Leeflang May 18th 2010 5:59AM

It's not my taste, but I like it. Surprisingly quirky, whimsical and un-stuffy.

Spectacular Bid May 18th 2010 6:04PM

If you go to the Rockefeller estate "Kykuit" (open to the public) in Pocantico Hills, New York, near Tarrytown you'll see that it too is "un-stuffy" as well.

Owing to the family's long connection with MOMA there is a significant mix of modern art, contemporary influences with furnishings and furniture and a regal but livable quality about that mansion.

Frankly I think too many people have a preconceived notion of what a Rockefeller "is" in terms of anticipated tastes and lifestyle without any basis in fact.