The Setting
The block, the seminary, & the house.
Two centuries of history behind № 428. Select to read more.
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Have you heard about your neighbor?
Sold at full ask,
in under two weeks.
428 West 20th Street, 2nd Floor · Chelsea
A few doors down, an 1857 condominium came to market with a real plan behind it: editorial photography, private previews, and a website of its own. It went into contract twelve days later. Here's the story.
Let's talk →Here's how it happened
We ran it like a launch, not a listing.
01
Strategy & pricing
A full plan built before the home hit the market, and a price set to where the market actually was.
02
Staged & prepared
The home was styled and prepared so buyers saw it at its best, from the first photo to the final walkthrough.
03
Private previews
Invitation-only previews for brokers and buyers, building interest before the home ever went live publicly.
04
Editorial production
Professional photography, video, and a 3D Matterport tour, so the home looked as good online as it did in person.
05
A website of its own
A custom site to tell the full story of the home and the block. You're reading it right now.
06
Distribution & coverage
Featured placement, press, and social reach that put the listing in front of serious buyers, with more than 100 of them through the door within days.
The result: in contract at full asking price, twelve days after launch.
200+
Five-star reviews*
Top 4%
of agents nationwide**
$800M+
in sales***
Decades
of collective experience
*Reviews via Google & Facebook. **2026 Ellies Awards for 2025 transactions at Douglas Elliman. ***Based on sales transactions over twenty-plus years.
“
From day one, Justin and the Dixon Advisory Team treated our sale like a launch, not a listing. They hosted private previews for buyers and brokers before we went live, created a custom website to tell the full story of our property, and generated marketing coverage we were genuinely proud to share. We were in contract at full asking price in under two weeks. If you're a neighbor thinking about selling, we can't recommend them enough.
— Pablo & Laura · 428 West 20th Street
The marketing your home would get
This is what we'd build for you.
Everything below is the actual campaign that sold 428: the photography, the floor plan, the story of the block. Picture your own address in its place.
North–South Light
Tall windows, all day light.
The floor was reconfigured for true north–south light. To the north, a full wall of glass faces the trees of the General Theological Seminary garden, directly across the street; to the south, the home opens to the rear and the private terrace.
High ceilings and oversized windows carry it from morning to evening: cool and even from the north, warm from the south by afternoon.
The Residence
A walk through the floor.
Drawn to Scale
The floor plan.
For illustrative purposes only. Measurements are approximate.
Private Terrace · 215 SF
Outside, to yourself.
Down the arched hallway, a private terrace of roughly 215 square feet, room for a table, a few chairs, and an umbrella against the afternoon sun.
A Note from the Agent
One block, eighteen houses, two centuries of New York.
Between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, the 400 block of West 20th Street is widely considered the most graceful residential block downtown. It contains the oldest house in Chelsea. The finest unbroken row of Greek Revival residences in New York City. The garden of the General Theological Seminary, donated in 1819 by the man who wrote 'Twas the night before Christmas.
Every house on this block was built under the same covenant, written by Clement Clarke Moore himself, requiring brick facades, a ten-foot setback from the curb, and no commerce of any kind. Nearly two hundred years later, the rule still holds.
The second floor of № 428 (a three-bedroom condominium, freshly renovated by its current owners, with a private terrace) is now offered as an exclusive listing. What follows is the house, the block, and the two centuries behind them.
The Townhouse · 1857
An 1857 house, read in elevation.
№ 428 is one of a row of brick townhouses built under Clement Clarke Moore's covenant: a uniform cornice line, a ten-foot setback, and the same red brick from end to end. The second floor sits behind the tall windows on the drawing below.
Kept, Not Copied
The original details.
Original fireplace surrounds, paneled doors, and millwork, preserved and restored through the renovation rather than replaced.
The Renovation · 2024 – 2025
A year of gut renovation.
Taken to studs over a year, with architecture by Graphite Architecture Studio and interiors by JOIA. The floor plan was reorganized for true north–south light; the original fireplace surrounds were preserved, and period crown molding kept and extended with bespoke millwork, abundant closets, and four custom ceiling medallions. The palette is restrained and consistent throughout: aged and antique brass on every fixture and sconce, Visual Comfort lighting, Lutron Claro switches, and Emtek French-brass door hardware. The primary bath is finished in checkered black-and-white marble underfoot, and a Bosch washer and dryer is installed in-residence.
Finished: the primary bath in checkered marble with aged brass, and an in-unit washer and dryer.
Renovation by Graphite Architecture Studio. Interior design by JOIA.
"The block of West 20th Street in Chelsea between Ninth and Tenth Avenues is one of New York's most graceful."
ArchiTakes
The Seminary Block of West 20th Street
Let's Talk · No Obligation
Curious what yours could do?
If you live on the block, or anywhere nearby, and you've ever wondered what your home might sell for, let's talk. No pressure and no obligation, just a clear and honest read on your home and today's market, from the team that just sold 428 at full ask.
Thank you.
Justin will be in touch shortly.
Justin Belmont
Real Estate Advisor · Dixon Advisory TeamDouglas Elliman Real Estate
justin.belmont@elliman.com · (646) 251-5386
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson · New York
A Brief Survey The block, house by house
A Brief Survey
The block, house by house.
Walked from east to west, from Ninth Avenue to Tenth, the south side of the 400 block reads like a syllabus in American residential architecture: Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and a handful of Italianate-inspired late additions, all built within the same Moore covenant, all looking north toward the Seminary garden.
North ↑ The General Theological Seminary · founded 1817
Swipe →
South · eighteen residences, two hundred years
404
The Walker House
The oldest dwelling in the Chelsea Historic District. A wood-frame house with a brick front, built for Hugh Walker on land leased from Clement Clarke Moore for forty dollars a year. Its plaque still names it the oldest in Chelsea.
406–418
Cushman Row
Seven red-brick townhouses built by Don Alonzo Cushman, a friend of Moore and a descendant of one of the first English settlers at Plymouth. Considered, with the houses on Washington Square North, the finest row of Greek Revival residences in the city.
The Subject
№ 428
The J.E. Whitley House
A four-story brick Italianate residence, three bays wide above an English basement. Built by F.X. Mony and named for the Whitley family, who made it their home through the second half of the nineteenth century. The listing offered here.
436
The Chelsea Mansion
A twenty-five-foot-wide townhouse of more than ten thousand square feet, six stories above a garden, with eight fireplaces and a private south-facing terrace. Currently listed by Serhant at eight figures.
402
The Donac
A five-story apartment house bearing the initials "DONAC" (Don Alonzo Cushman) above its entry. In the late 1950s, the home of LeRoi and Hettie Jones, where Kerouac, Hubert Selby Jr., Frank O'Hara, and Ornette Coleman mingled at parties.
Across
The General Theological Seminary
The oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church, on land donated by Clement Clarke Moore in 1819. Its enclosed gardens, known as the Close, remain the largest privately held green space in the neighborhood, and the open view from every house on the row.
Across the Street The General Theological Seminary
Across the Street
The garden that anchors the row.
Donated by Clement Clarke Moore in 1819, the eight-acre Close of the General Theological Seminary has been the unbroken northern view from every house on the block for nearly two centuries.
The General Theological Seminary, founded 1817 · the Close, designed by Charles C. Haight, 1883–1902
The Centerpiece № 428 · the house itself
The Centerpiece
A brief life of № 428.
A four-story Italianate townhouse, completed in the late autumn of 1857, has hosted seven generations of New Yorkers. A summary of who has lived inside.
The story of 428 West 20th Street is not the story of a single owner, but of the people who have moved through its rooms since the year before the Civil War: a builder, a young family, a journalist, a Quaker theologian, a Prohibition-era restaurateur, and, most recently, two software engineers who restored it.
Each generation left something. Original stone fireplace surrounds. Window shutters. Built-in bookcases. Wide-plank floors. The 215-square-foot terrace overlooking the seminary garden. And, as of last year, a renovation that prepared the house for whatever the next chapter holds.
1857
The builder. The Italianate house at № 428 is completed by F.X. Mony. He never lives in it.
1870
The Whitleys. J.E. Whitley, attorney, raises a family here. His son Jonas graduates and becomes a journalist for The New York World; his daughter Charlotte teaches at Grammar School № 56 on West 18th Street. The house takes their name.
1894
St. Anna's Hall. The Quaker minister Sarah Smiley founds a women's theological library inside the house. By 1894, it holds two thousand volumes, many of them rare books she has sourced personally from Europe.
1921
The whiskey. Charles Mordaunt, a Ninth Avenue restaurateur, lives at № 428. He sells a single glass of whiskey to a man who turns out to be a Prohibition agent. The arrest follows.
1970
Protected. The Chelsea Historic District is designated. № 428's brick facade can never again be altered without the Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval.
2025
The present chapter. The current owners complete a year-long renovation, designed by Graphite Architecture Studio, that preserves the house's original details while reconfiguring the floor for true north-south light.
The Neighborhood
West Chelsea, at the door.
The 400 block sits at the center of everything that makes this corner of Manhattan singular: its tables, its galleries, and the green of the waterfront, nearly all within a short walk.
On the Block
- La Bergamote The neighborhood’s French patisserie and café, on the corner.
- Cookshop A Chelsea mainstay for market-driven American cooking and weekend brunch.
- The High Line Hotel A landmark hotel and garden set in the seminary’s Gothic Revival buildings.
The Galleries
- David Zwirner On West 20th Street, the same block.
- Gagosian · Hauser & Wirth Flagship spaces a few blocks north and west.
- Pace, Paula Cooper & more The heart of the Chelsea art district, all walkable.
Parks & Culture
- The High Line The elevated park, with an entrance a block away.
- Little Island The floating park on the Hudson, a short stroll south.
- The Whitney · Hudson River Park American art and miles of waterfront at the foot of the High Line.
About the Agent
Justin Belmont
Real Estate Advisor · Douglas Elliman
Justin spent twelve years building products at Spotify, Uber, and Amazon before carrying that operator's craft into luxury residential real estate. His practice is built on deeper diligence for buyers and bespoke marketing for sellers, powered by custom software, proprietary data tools, and the full reach of one of the country's premier brokerages.
Across New York City and the Hamptons.
Learn more at belmontx.com →