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NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CHELSEA; A Mansion Unmatched, a Future Unknown

By ALEX MINDLIN

Among the dingy buildings of West 14th Street -- the scarred brownstones stripped of cornices, the utilitarian concrete-and-glass boxes -- the brick Greek Revival town house on the street's north side near Seventh Avenue stands out like a trumpet blast. Its black doors, bearing the address in gold leaf, almost glow, and a cast-iron balcony sets off the parlor windows, which stretch from the floor nearly to the 14-foot ceiling.

Inside is a perfectly preserved 1847 mansion, with 13 fireplaces, huge mahogany doors and intricate plaster crown moldings along the ceilings. Hidden touches abound, like the carved bird pecking a flower among the mantelpiece's Carrara marble foliage.

All this detail was uncovered and protected by Raf Borello, the adoring owner of the house, who died in February after living there for 29 years. The executor of his estate, a niece, is selling the building, known as the Andrew Norwood House. Because the exterior is a designated landmark, it cannot be seriously altered. The interior, however, as a private home inaccessible to the public, cannot be declared a landmark, and whoever buys the house would be free to strip its ornamentation or add rooms.

''In the Village, when an intact gem of a house comes on the market, you hold your breath,'' said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. ''Sometimes it's lovingly restored on the inside, and other times you see all of the historic fabric just ripped out.''

Suzette Meshulam, a broker with Halstead Property who is listing the house together with Elaine Honzak, of Houlihan Lawrence, acknowledged that the house, just north of Greenwich Village, was attractive to developers. ''There probably could be a lot of square footage added to this building,'' Ms. Meshulam said. ''But it would be great if we could find someone who could keep it as it is.''

Two features of the house would be of particular interest to someone eager to enlarge it. The house is shallower than some of its neighbors, leaving room for a formal garden with a boxwood hedge; it also has a roughly contemporary three-story extension in back that falls two stories short of the roofline. Both of these would allow for new construction that did not alter the house's appearance from the street, a requirement of Landmarks Preservation Commission rules.

Another issue is the house's lavish appointments, which Mr. Borello, a commercial real estate broker, lovingly rescued from under many coats of dirt, paint and plaster, employing an army of craftsmen. ''There are things in here that are collectible on their own -- the doors, the doorknobs,'' Ms. Meshulam said. The parlor doors are made of Cuban mahogany, the doorknobs silver.

''You can disassemble it and sell all the pieces and parts,'' she said, ''but where and how often do you see something like this? This is a life's work. It would be a travesty if they ripped everything out.''

Mr. Borello's niece and executor, Linda Tamburri, said she and her family hoped not to sell the house to a developer, but beyond that, she said, they could not be too picky about buyers, because they had to pay for the taxes on Mr. Borello's estate.

''I'd hate to see them chop down walls, everything my uncle worked for all his life,'' she said, but she added: ''There's a financial end to this. Right now it's not drawing any rent.''

And if a buyer wanted to extend the house, say, by building on the garden? ''It's hard to say what a buyer would do,'' she said. ''If somebody felt they needed more room, I suppose that's what they would do.'' She paused and said, wistfully: ''But the garden is so beautiful. If you sit out there, that's a special thing.''

Copyright 2006 New York Times Company

Post Date: 9/18/2005

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