Meticulously Renovated Jones Wood Garden Townhouse Looks to Nearly Double Its Price

How would you like to have a secret garden right outside your door? Wouldn’t it be nice to just step out of your dining room, onto your private brick terrace, and walk straight into a field of lush greenness so exclusive it makes Gramercy Park look like a public playground? We’re talking about this stunning five-story townhouse at 160 East 66^th Street, right on Jones Wood Garden. Not only does this $11.9 million Upper East Side beauty have a stunning exterior, but the owners, who purchased it in 2008 for just $6.85 million, clearly left no stone unturned during the meticulous renovation.

The south-facing garden captures your eye even as you enter the 18’6-foot-wide home. The first floor has a high-end eat-in kitchen and a dining room with wood-burning fireplaces, hidden built-in closets, and hand-painted Zuber wallpaper. Here’s where you open the French doors and step out onto the terrace (with grill) to inhale the oxygen from your new green friends.

Upstairs, the second floor has a living room with wood-burning fireplace and a show-stopping Regency-style bowed window, standing 13-feet tall and offering a panoramic view of the garden. And for an awesomely meta moment, you can go into the wood-paneled library right off the living room, grab a copy of “The Secret Garden,” and read it by the window as you take in your view.

The third-floor master has a wood-burning fireplace, walk-in closets, Kallista-fitted en suite, and a dressing room large enough to double as another bedroom. Two other bedrooms on the fourth floor share a bathroom with separate tub, walk-in shower, and water closet.

A loft-like fifth floor features a kitchenette, two setback terraces with amazing city views, and a full bath. The listing suggests this versatile area be used as a family room, media room, or additional bedroom. Laundry facilities are on the fourth floor and in the basement.

Jones Wood Garden is an exclusive 12-key gem between Lexington and Third Avenues, and 66^th and 65^th Streets. It was established in 1920 by a group led by architect Edward Shepard Hewitt. Hewitt and friend/associate William Emerson (not to be confused with the British architect of the same name) purchased 12 homes and remade them to face a 100-by-108-foot sunken garden planted with hardy greenery that would be easy to maintain while creating a country estate feel. The project was known as the “65^th and 66^th Street Gardens” until around 1950 when it became the Jones Wood Association, referring to Jones’s Wood, a popular block of farmland overlooking the East River. A garden association maintains the greenspace and each of the 12 homes has a private area for entertaining and dining.

[Listing: 160 East 66^th Street by James Curtis and John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens]

Photos courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens