If you’ve ever rounded the corner at Second Avenue and East 13th Street, then you’ve probably been charmed by it—a lilliputian-size confection of a house with a bright red front door and mansard roof.

Adding to the whimsy is the fact that the little brick dwelling, with its wrought-iron fence and supersize upper floor windows, sits at 249 ½ East 13th Street, a rare fractional address in the East Village.

The fractional address is a clue that the carriage house hit the streetscape after the two taller buildings on either side of it. And the bronze plaque on the facade tips you off that this relative newcomer to the neighborhood has a colorful origin story.

Dating back to 1891, the house served as the short-lived studio for sculptors Karl Bitter and Giuseppe Moretti. Their names may not be familiar to residents of Gotham today, but each left an enduring mark on the city.

Austrian-born Bitter (at left) created the bronze sculpted doors of Trinity Church, as well as statues of German-American figures like Franz Sigel on Riverside Drive and Carl Schurz in Morningside Park.

He also designed the relief sculpture at The Breakers, the 70-room Newport home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife, Alice.

Moretti (below right), an immigrant from Italy, is known for his work with Richard Morris Hunt carving marble friezes and statues at Marble House, the Newport “summer cottage” of William K. and Alva Vanderbilt.

In addition, Moretti sculpted the bronze “Polyhymnia” statue that now sits in a courtyard at 6 East 87th Street.

How did the two sculptors connect and end up sharing a studio? In the early 1890s, both Bitter and Moretti were living at 215 Second Avenue, the tenement on the corner of East 13th Street that abuts the little house.

Why they decided to create a shared studio space together isn’t clear. But it appears they approached the owner of 215 Second Avenue about constructing a studio disguised as a carriage house in the backyard of the tenement, which at the time was an empty lot.

Once completed, Moretti was listed as the owner, though both their names were carved into the facade.

“Built in the rear yard of neighboring 215 Second Avenue, [the carriage house] was constructed in 1891 as a sculptor’s studio at a time when rear stables were frequently converted to artist’s studios,” noted Village Preservation in a 2019 post.

“As a result, the building was designed to look like it was originally a stable, though it never was (a conceit which became more and more common with artist’s studios built in New York in the early 20th century, such as on MacDougal Alley and Washington Mews).”

With the open space and sunlight that streamed through the upper floor windows, you would imagine Bitter and Moretti used the studio built specifically for them for several years.

But the two actually departed the space after just one year. “Whether because of clashing egos, as some have suggested, or simply because of commissions that took them elsewhere, they did not share the Manhattan studio after 1891,” wrote Ruth Beaumont Cook, author of Magic in Stone: The Sylacauga Marble Story.

Bitter went on to pursue sculpture commissions across the United States. His death in 1915 occurred in New York, however. On April 10 of that year, he was killed by a car that swerved into him on Broadway as he was leaving the Metropolitan Opera House.

Moretti also followed commissions across the Midwest and Southwest. He retired to Italy in 1925 and died in San Remo a decade later.

And their delightful studio? Another sculptor, Frank Lopez, occupied it in 1899, according to Christopher Gray in a 2003 New York Times streetscapes column. The space was sold in 1906, and a 1940 photo (above) doesn’t show any commercial or artistic activity.

Today the faux carriage house is a private home. Last year, the entire building was advertised for rent. These interior photos show rustic brick walls, a wall of front windows, one decent-size second floor bedroom, and two bathrooms for $7,500 per month.

Considering the going rates for living space in the East Village these days, I’d say it was something of a bargain for a delightful little house with a true artistic legacy.

[Third photo: Wikipedia; fourth photo: Encyclopedia of Alabama; sixth photo: NYC Department of Records & Information Services]