The Harlem townhouse of poet Maya Angelou has sold after six months on the market.
“We at Link NY Realty are happy to inform you that we have sold the historic brownstone of the illustrious poet, author, and activist, Dr. Maya Angelou, in Harlem. The home is a record breaker, being the most expensive single family home per square foot sold in Harlem,” a company representative told Real Estate Weekly.
A New York Post report from February identified a 5,300 s/f home in Hamilton Heights, which sold for $4.95 million, as the previous record holder. Angelou’s five-bedroom, five bathroom home, located at 58 West 120th Street, was listed last January for $5.095 million. She bought the four-story building in 2002, according to property records. It would later become the site of dance parties and Boggle games that involved guests such as Oprah Winfrey.
Angelou spent most of her time in Winston Salem, North Carolina. A year before her death in 2014, the Harlem home was put on the market as a $12,000 per month rental property. According to the listing for the property on Streeteasy, the 5,500 s/f townhouse has two bedrooms on the top floor, one of which is the master bedroom. Downstairs, there’s a “summer room” that leads to a private garden. Below that is a cellar that contains enough space for a recreational room. The house also comes with French doors containing stained glass, staircase banisters and chandeliers in each corner.
Maya Angelou, who died at the age of 86, was best known as the author of the 1969 book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which was about her childhood during the Jim Crow era. During her career she wrote more than 30 books. She also received the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 2000.
