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"House of Whimsy"'s Owner Really Wants to Rent Out the Ground Floor
Thursday, June 7, 2025 at 3:54PM
When Rachel Nash, the daughter of Dorothy Nash, who owns the dilapidated-if-colorful building on the prime corner of Seventh Avenue and Second Street, approached the Community Board Six meeting back in January, she implored the audience for advice on financing the ground-floor art gallery and also discussed plans to finally fix up the crumbling building. Nothing so far has come to fruition, unfortunately, but it looks like she's at least keeping the effort alive.
Recently posted on the ancient sidewalk shed that's shrouded the building for years are a series of colorful mismatched signs advertising the available ground floor, which Nash briefly toyed with turning into a cafe and performance space. Not sure if she's looking for a tenant to share the space with the gallery or to take over the gallery entirely, but apparently there is an actual gallery in there somewhere. Interested parties can call her at 347-792-3042.
House of Whimsy in Storefronts
Reader Comments (6)
I cannot fully confirm this, but I think that's a fully-HPS-registered Billy Diddles writing down that number. Desperate times.
Renovate from the top down or demolish the dangerous eyesore. The Bloomberg Administration will only do anything if someone is injured or worse - and even then -
this is ridiculous. the nash's owe around $580,000 in back property taxes and they have the nerve to try and seek help? also, there is apparently a long term lease in place for the first 2 floors of the building. the nash's never held up their end of the deal and have been involved in litigation with the lessee ever since. can all homeowners just stop paying property taxes with impunity? sounds like a good way to save a nice chunk of money each year.
This family has numerous properties, in great disrepair, in our neighborhood. A walk of the neighborhood will reveal another building on 4th ave, also with the "Townhouse Art Gallery" signage as well as two abandoned town houses on 1st and 2nd st's; all of which are owned by this family. If they are so into promoting this building as an artist space, then sell off the other properties and bring this prime piece of real estate up to neighborhood standards. And for the Nash Family, your quirkiness would be much more appreciated if you did what you promised to your neighbors in regards to this building and understood that junk collected on PS sidewalks and used shoes are not an art installment.
It's crazy and offensive that they just leave that potentially great building as an eyesore and hazard. Aren't there laws about how long scaffolding can be up? It ruins that corner of the block and street and, frankly, looks terrible.
I wholeheartedly agree. Enough is enough with these people. There should be a time limit on how long scaffolding can stay up, especially on a busy neighborhood avenue. It's an eyesore. They should be forced to sell off one or two buildings to repair the others.