390 West End Ave

The Apthorp

Not everyone wants to live in a historic building. But for those who do, the 12-story, limestone-clad Apthorp offers a “historic provenance coupled with modern amenities and finishes,” according to Robert Graves, an agent at Douglas Elliman who represents the largest residence ever listed in the building. Built in 1908 by William Waldorf Astor, The Apthorp was one of the first buildings with a central drive-in courtyard and “an outstanding example of Italian Renaissance architecture,” according to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which designated the building as such in 1969. Taking up an entire city block between Broadway and West End Avenue and West 78th and 79th streets, The Apthorp has been home to a long list of celebrities, from choreographer George Balanchine to Emmy Award-winning actress Amanda Seyfried, who gave Architectural Digest a tour of her renovated residence on the building’s top floor in 2023. For “When Harry Met Sally” writer Nora Ephron — who lived in the building from the 1980s to the early 2000s — the landscaped courtyard was a big draw of her then-rent stabilized apartment. “Enter the courtyard, and the city falls away; you find yourself in the embrace of a beautiful sheltered park,” she wrote in The New Yorker in 2006. Around that time, the building was refreshed with new amenities and converted to condos. In addition to its history and private-park-like courtyard, New Yorkers gravitate to the building’s location and its proximity to parks, museums and New York institutions like Zabar’s gourmet food emporium.