The Twin Peaks of Greenwich Village

The original structure at 102 Bedford Street dates to 1830, but what stands there now is something far more eccentric. In 1925, architect Clifford Reed Daily borrowed a substantial sum from financier Otto Kahn and set about renovating the building into his vision of an “island growing in a desert of mediocrity” — a ten-unit, two-towered wooden cabin that looks like it belongs in a Swiss forest rather than lower Manhattan.

When the building was completed in 1926, silent film star Mabel Normand christened it with a ceremonious champagne bottle smashing. The roster of early residents reads like a pop culture roll call: Douglas Fairbanks, Walt Disney, Cary Grant, and Miles Davis all called its modest “artist studios” home at various points. Each unit runs just 20 by 18 feet — rustic by design, uncomfortable by necessity.

The property converted to co-ops in the 1980s and continued to attract New York’s creative types. The building is still privately owned — a peculiar landmark hiding in plain sight on one of the Village’s quietest blocks.

Location: 102 Bedford Street