{"id":326603,"date":"2026-08-21T12:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/326603\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T12:36:09","slug":"inside-the-strange-history-of-80-washington-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/326603\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the strange history of 80 Washington Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 189-year-old West Village townhouse that once housed the composer of \u201cThe Stars and Stripes Forever;\u201d\u00a0a Pulitzer-winning novelist; and\u00a0Travis Scott and\u00a0Kylie Jenner \u2014 all before it became the site of an alleged mob-run poker scandal<\/a> \u2014 keeps marching on.<\/p>\n

In its latest chapter, the landmarked red-brick Georgian townhouse at 80 Washington Place is now the site of this year\u2019s blue-chip Kips Bay Decorator Show House<\/a>, which since 1973 has been known in the design and residential architecture worlds as the preeminent showcase for high-end interior designers, while raising more than $33 million for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two top designers including Carrier and Company, Peter Dunham, TORREY, Marmol Radziner, Ten Plus Three and Nicole Fisher Interiors are currently transforming the property into a modern, month-long creative dreamscape that opens to the public on Sept. 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exquisite home with an unusual history will become the stage for the Kips Bay Decorator Show House next month. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

80 Washington Place. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

The double-height great room shows off 19th-century exposed brick, and modern steel and glass. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

The home comes with two modern kitchens. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

A modern bedroom in a 19th-century setting with charming exposed brick. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we saw 80 Washington Place, we immediately saw the potential,\u201d said Nazira Handal, director of special events and corporate partnerships at Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful historic townhouse with so much character, but it also offers six levels, terraces, a wellness floor and a rooftop overlooking Washington Square Park, giving our designers an interesting range of spaces to work with. Most importantly, it felt like a house that could be completely reimagined, and we were excited to show visitors what our designers did with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The residence was most recently on the market for $21 million\u00a0before it was taken off in June. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s slated to go back on the market once the showcase ends, listing broker Melissa Olson, of Douglas Elliman, told Gimme Shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s currently a construction site, filled with designers running around and lots of plywood. But it\u2019s going to be amazing,\u201d Olson said, adding that when the home returns to market, it will be at a new, still-to-be-determined price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is plenty of space to showcase art. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

The home now features a dedicated wellness floor with a gym and a sauna. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

While the exact designs are currently under wraps, they will include upgrades to the kitchen and bathrooms, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the top designers in the world are making it amazing. It benefits everyone, including Kips Bay,\u201d Olson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The current owners purchased the six-story spread for $17 million in cash in 2024 after it had lingered on and off the market for 12 years. It originally\u00a0asked $31.5 million back in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owners, who wish to remain anonymous,\u00a0then listed the home for $22.5 million <\/a>a few weeks after the poker bust last year \u2014 and around eight months after they bought it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The living and entertaining space is grand. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

Summer in the city includes a grill and a dining area. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t buy it as an investment, but their plans changed,\u201d Olson said. <\/p>\n

The six-bedroom home is around 8,700 square feet, and\u00a0comes with six baths and three powder rooms. It also features four landscaped terraces totaling 1,566 square feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reimagined after an architectural restoration, the home is now a mix of historic brick, original stone, glass, steel and wood.<\/p>\n

The townhouse\u2019s past lives \u201cmake for great cocktail conversation,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always room for a baby grand piano. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

The home\u2019s glossy present is far from its reality just a few years ago, when neighbors were calling 311<\/a>, and the ritzy residence was the site of multiple mob-linked assaults, according to an\u00a0unsealed 2025 federal indictment\u00a0<\/a>and related court filings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From 2021 to 2023, the townhouse was allegedly the site of rigged poker games backed by the Gambino and Genovese crime families, with the Bonanno family sharing in the proceeds after the game merged with one of its operations in 2023. The games were fronted by NBA stars and coach Chauncey Billups to lure victims, according to the accusations that broke last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two assaults happened at the home, according to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York. In November 2022, Bonanno associates allegedly assaulted a gambler over an unpaid debt \u2014 and around a year later, two mobsters armed with a gun and a baton allegedly stormed the home and assaulted the game\u2019s organizer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A cozy nook by the stairs. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

The home\u2019s history includes ownership in 1919 by the American composer and band leader John Philip Sousa. It later became a boarding house, where one of its tenants was the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Willa Cather.\u00a0In 2021,\u00a0Scott was renting the townhouse<\/a>\u00a0while Jenner, then pregnant with their second child, was mainly residing in LA with their daughter Stormi \u2014 although she was spotted<\/a> staying at the townhouse with Scott during the time he rented it. The now-former couple had no involvement in the alleged poker scandal.<\/p>\n

History aside, details inside the six-floor townhouse include a skylight that floods all floors with light \u2014 down to the basement media lounge.<\/p>\n

A garden floor features a foyer that opens to a chef\u2019s kitchen, along with a double-height great\u00a0room with a gas fireplace and floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading\u00a0to a garden made for indoor-outdoor living and entertaining.<\/p>\n

The scale of the home is impressive. Evan Joseph Studios<\/p>\n

Two guest suites take up the third floor, while the entire fourth floor is devoted to a primary bedroom with a fireplace, a private terrace, a spa-like bath and a walk-in dressing room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fifth floor is for wellness, including a home gym, a glass-enclosed sauna and a terrace.<\/p>\n

The crown jewel is the roof deck, with a grill, a bar, a dining area, a lounge \u2014 and views from Washington from Square Park to One World Trade Center and the downtown city skyline.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 189-year-old West Village townhouse that once housed the composer of \u201cThe Stars and Stripes Forever;\u201d\u00a0a Pulitzer-winning novelist;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5867,2450,1023,9,56,63,65,64,1491,3006,8028,6069,2380],"class_list":["post-326603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-design","tag-gimme-shelter","tag-luxury-real-estate","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-surreal-estate","tag-townhouses","tag-west-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}