Townhouse to Twin Peaks: The Whimsical Story of 102 Bedford

Behind every street corner, alleyway, and front stoop lies an untold story. Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate styles dominate the neighborhood’s architecture, but how did they come to be here in the first place?  Luckily, we have our comprehensive collection of landmark and historic district designation reports which provides us with the official record of their history and the reasons for their significance.

Inspired by our designation reports, and in honor of Archtober, New York City’s month-long festival of architecture and design, we took a deep dive into one of the neighborhood’s most peculiar and distinctive buildings.

Built around 1830, 102 Bedford Street initially was a 2 ½ story wood-frame, Federal style home, that blended in with much of the architecture found throughout our neighborhood and lower Manhattan at the time. Over the next hundred years or so, only subtle alterations were made to the home; for example, in 1901, the current owner of the home, real estate investor Richard Bogardus, installed a fire escape–likely because he rented out the home to more than one family. Not long after, Bogardus passed away, and the home remained in his estate until 1913, when a mysterious investor purchased the property. 

Concurrently, Clifford Daily, a local builder, had his eyes on the home. Unmarried and living nearby at Sheridan Square, Daily was the decorator of The Little House, a tea room located next door at 100 Bedford Street in the tiny former back shed of 17 Grove Street. It was there that Daily imagined a new reality for 102 Bedford, envisioning it to be a haven for his bohemian ideals, where creatives could live and flourish.

And so, with the help of his friend and financial backer, millionaire Otto Kahn, Daily purchased the row house in 1925 and transformed it into a five-story artist’s studio apartment building beyond recognition of its original form. Unlike many of the other structures found in the neighborhood, 102 Bedford was now distinguished by the decorative use of pseudo-medieval half-timbering with smooth stucco walls. Steep roofs with twin gables slope down to a deep overhang at the front, making the home undeniably unique. And after a year, construction was completed, and Daily’s dream building came to fruition. 

On May 21, 1926, Daily christened the newly renovated eccentric 102 Bedford Street in an equally unique style. Taken from a 1998 New York Times article, The Herald Tribune reported that actress Mabel Normand stood atop one of the chalet-style gables and smashed a bottle of champagne, all while Princess Amelie Troubetskoy, an American novelist married to a Russian prince, honored the Greek God Pan by burning acorns in a charcoal brazier.

The festivities fit the fresh facade. As discussed in the Greenwich Village Historic District designation report from 1969, the home’s exterior includes large casement bay windows that project from the facade of the building and are framed by half-timbering. The halftimbered panels, below the windows, relate them to each other in a continuous vertical bay. The same treatment appears in two rows of bay windows on the south side of the building, centered under the two gables which gave the building its name–“Twin Peaks.” Later, the AIA Guide to New York City dubbed this architectural feature as pure Hansel and Gretel.

Internally, the building underwent many changes as well. Now a five-story structure, each floor had two single-bedroom units. And, at the time of the renovation, apartments rented out for $68.50 a month apiece, according to The Hearld Tribune. At approximately 20 by 18 feet, each apartment is tiny but still exudes classic Village whimsical charm through its oddly shaped windows, banquette beds, and shingled shed roofs for the bath and kitchen enclosures. Yet despite the incredible appeal of 102 Bedford, the modest dimensions have given rise to some skepticism about claims that Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Walt Disney, Cary Grant, and Miles Davis each lived there for a time (you can view a slideshow of the interior of one of the apartments HERE).

To Daily, Twin Peaks was envisioned as the home of artists, creatives, and bohemians. He created a whimsical home set for imaginative people. Daily’s dreams, however, were short-lived. In 1927, unable to pay his mortgage at 17 Grove Street, Daily lost the property when Otto Kahn’s corporation, Hanover Square Realty, foreclosed on it. Consequently, Daily also relinquished ownership of 102 Bedford back to Otto Kahn. And over the next several decades, tenants continued to vary from Kahn’s daughter to writer George H. Faulkner, to a series of clerks. 

While there is little photographic evidence, the Twin Peaks building was originally painted black, green, orange, and blue—again affirming a stark contrast to the buildings found in the rest of the neighborhood. But by the mid twentieth century, its colorful facade was painted over, replaced with a more conventional brown and beige until 2014 when it underwent another makeover, this time only grayer and more muted.

Today, 102 Bedford Street, or Twin Peaks, stands as a reminder of the neighborhood’s layered history—a building that blends architectural whimsy with the stories of the people who imagined, built, and lived in it. Go on your own deep dive, exploring the architectural history of our neighborhood through our comprehensive collection of landmark and historic district designation reports here.