This may be one of the most beautiful little houses in Greenwich Village, but it used to live in another New York City neighborhood.
This is 121 Charles Street, and believe it or not, this little farmhouse originally stood on the Upper East Side, around York Avenue and 71st Street!
Sources date it to 1810 and Back then, this part of Yorkville was very rural. The farmhouse was actually used as a dairy.
Photo: Scouting NYC
It earned the nickname “Cobble Court” from the cobblestones that surrounded the farmhouse and led to its front entrance. But as New York continued to grow around it, taller buildings rose on all sides, gradually hiding the tiny farmhouse from view.
Over the years, it became a rental property, and one of its residents was Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon.
By the 1960s, the farmhouse was deteriorating, and its future looked bleak.
In 1965, the property was sold to the Archdiocese of New York, which planned to build a home for the aged on the site.
The farmhouse, along with the surrounding tenement buildings, was slated for demolition.
But its tenants, Sven and Ingrid Bernhard, weren't willing to let that happen. They fought to save the quirky little house they called Cobble Court and eventually managed to purchase it.
There was just one problem: they had to move it.
And that’s where this story gets really interesting.
In 1967, the entire farmhouse was loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved across Manhattan to the West Village.
They even brought along the original cobblestones and recreated the little courtyard here.
Today, 121 Charles Street is a New York City landmark.
This is one of the reasons I love New York. You never know what you're going to find hiding around the next corner.
