Rent Norman Mailer’s Nautical Brooklyn Promenade Loft

Norman Mailer Added This Skylight and Gangway, Stuffed with Nautical Details, Including A Vintage Door (Right) and a portthole that is just out of frame in this listing Photo.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

Norman Mailer, when he sat down to write, like hating a view. Which is how he dreams up Living on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in a 25-Foot-Wide Townhouse Who Lower Floors and Gradually Sold, Saving the Top-with the best views-for Himself. His walk-up, on the fourth floor, Became a two-bedroom Apartment with the Feel of a duplex, thanks to a unique Addition: A Kind of Crow’s Nest, Capped With A Skylight and Flaered With Gangways Look Over the Living Area. A Separate Room Downstairs Served As HIS WRITING STUDIO WEND HE IN TOWN; he finished The Executioner’s Song, arguably his masterpiece, there. Eight in His 80s, with Bad hips and Knees, Mailer Continued to do the three flutes, walking with a pair of canes.

142 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn. Mailer Bought The Building, THEN SOLD OFF LOWER UNITS AS CO-OPS AND LIVED ON THE Top Floor.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

The design was part of Mailer’s Macho lore – an idea he cookened up to conquer one of his (many) Flaws. Nor his son Michael Mailer told The New York Times When the apartment first went on the market in 2011, Norman Mailer sufferered from vertigo and was trying to vanquish it through a form of Design as therapy. But the layout was also fun for his nine kids: Michael Remembered Hanging a trapeze, a rope ladder, and a hammock in which hunter S. Thompson was Once Discovered A Night of Partying.

Since Those Days, the apartment’s been brought up to code and painted in glossy White, and the kitchen has been opened up and cleared of a dinner bar. (The Family Kept It for a while HIS SIGTHT AND FINAL WIFE, Norris Church Mailerdied, and eventually SOLD IT, IN 2018for $2 million — a price that included the writing studio, which the owner isn’t renting out.) But there’s still a lot of character: stained-glass windows in the living area and nautical features that Cap’n Mailer brought in, including a metal door (uselessly Swinging off that upper floor), a portthole Window facing onto a terrace with the Views of the East River, and a slight of the Ceiling of the Living Room – Paneled in Slats of the Planking of A Hull.

The Apartment’s Broker, David Son, Listed The Apartment for Rent Once beforein 2022, for $ 8,500 a month – a price that sparked what he reference to as an “insane bidding.” This time around, son and the owner deciding to raise the nansing rent to $ 13,000 – Reflective of bot more interest in downtown brooklyn and higher prices for apartments with character. He Expects to Find a Taker Quickly. “Anyone in here is Blown Away,” he Said.

The entryway (right) opens on a dining area that looks on a galley kitchen and a wide living area with the east of the promenade.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

Past the dining area are doors to two bedrooms that overlook Columbia heights.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

A Kitchen Counter rests over BOOKSHELVES THAT STRETCH the LEGTH of the Living Room. The Ceiling Bows Slightly Like the Hull of a Ship.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

The stained glas is original. Sliding DOORS Lead to a Private Terrace.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

The terrace off the living area.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

Upstairs, off the gangway addition, there are two private roof patios.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

One of the two bedrooms. EACH HAS BUILT-IN SPACE SPACE (RIGHT) AND ARCHED Windows that Peer Over Columbia Heights from A Mansard Roof.
Photo: Rachel Kuzma

The second bedroom with a row of closets (right).
Photo: Rachel Kuzma