gem in the city

Places like this inevitably make me smile. A small carriage house, surrounded by taller buildings in New York's Gramercy Park area. Why has this little house, estimated to date from the 1880s, managed to survive? It isn't terribly historically significant (excepting a former resident related to Winston Churchill), simply historical. Still, it's been a house for a long time, and it continues to be so.

It turns out that the carriage house is a gathering spot for Argentines living in or visiting the city. On weekends, Mr. Maximino sets up a grill in a narrow walkway beside the house and barbecues steaks bought at an Argentine butcher in Queens. Much Argentine wine is drunk. A female acquaintance of Mr. Pepa’s has been known to stand on the coffee table and blow saxophone to samba records. “We’re trying to tone it down,” Mr. Maximino said, “because the neighbors complain.”

I'm looking forward to more from the New York Times' new "occasional series of articles offering inside looks at homes that stand out in the landscape of New York and other cities."

via AT