Up for a Challenge? Convert This Historic Sag Harbor Home Back to Single Family

People with a passion for historic preservation and deep pockets might be interested in this property—although we are not at all sure the numbers work. This 3400sf house was probably built around 1828 for Noah Washburn. (The listing calls it Federal style but we would say Italianate, or at least with Italianate elements.) It is currently configured as six apartments, with leases in place until September 30, 2016. (Of course it will take a long time for plans to be drawn up, permits to be put in, and so on.) And we don't know how many original features are left, which could mean a starkly modern interior if the new owner so desired. After you've paid your $3.245M asking price and then poured a few million more reworking the place, how much will the property be worth? Does it make sense?

We're sure the shade of Noah Washburn would approve, though. He's currently resident in Oakland Cemetery, where he's referred to as "captain," although we don't know why. An 1828 advertisement in the Sag Harbor Corrector (love that name) stated that Mr. Washburn was looking for an apprentice to learn tinsmithing. An 1837 United States Treasury record has him being paid $120 a year as a customs inspector in Sag Harbor. By 1850, Mr. Washburn and wife Statira seemed to be running a boarding house with two seamen and their families living with them. But in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, there are no boarders. The value of the house was listed as $600 in the 1850s, $1200 in the 1860s, and back down to $800 in 1870. This is because, of course, of the decline of the whaling industry. In 1870, Sag Harbor went into an economic slump. Mr. Washburn died March 6, 1875.

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