New York real estate has always been a little unhinged\u2014shoebox apartments that cost more than castles, brownstones priced like entire islands. But here\u2019s a listing that really floats above the rest: the Yankee Ferry, Ellis Island\u2019s last surviving passenger boat, is officially on the market for $1.25 million.<\/p>\n
The 118-year-old vessel has lived many lives. Built in 1907, she ferried immigrants to Ellis Island, served in both world wars, toured Lady Liberty, shuttled passengers to Block Island and Casco Bay and even spent time as scrap. Since 2003, though, she\u2019s been a floating fantasia\u2014home and studio to artists Richard and Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, who transformed the 150-foot-long, 10,000-square-foot ship into something between a maximalist wonderland and a living history museum.<\/p>\n
RECOMMENDED:\u00a0New York City could get its first hydrogen ferry\u2014what to know about the clean, green marine upgrade<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Think bright painted walls, lace and patterned wallpaper, swinging rope chairs, trunks straight out of steampunk dreams and beds tucked everywhere from the wheelhouse to the engine room. There\u2019s even a piano on board. Original ship details still peek through, layered with the couple\u2019s signature eccentric aesthetic. The result is part antique, part fever dream and entirely unique.<\/p>\n Of course, life on a historic iron-hulled steamship isn\u2019t all sunsets and swans gliding past your porthole. Dockage fees have skyrocketed over the years, and the MacKenzie-Childs duo\u2014now in their 70s\u2014says it\u2019s time to pass the baton. The Yankee has been shuffled around New York and New Jersey since their ownership, with stints in Tribeca, Hoboken and Brooklyn\u2019s Gowanus Bay Terminal before finally landing at a Staten Island shipyard.<\/p>\n Before she sails off to her next chapter, though, New Yorkers have a rare chance to peek inside. As part of Open House New York\u2019s festival weekend<\/a> (October 17\u201319), the Yankee will open her doors for timed tours. \u201cThis is a truly unique houseboat and we\u2019re so excited to get to share how some New Yorkers live this way,\u201d Elis Shin, the festival\u2019s deputy director, told Gothamist<\/a>. Tickets cost $7 and will almost certainly vanish faster than a Midtown parking spot.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got a cool million (and a quarter) plus somewhere to dock her, the Yankee Ferry could be your next home. After all, as Victoria MacKenzie-Childs put it, \u201cShe\u2019s the most important vessel on the sea as far as her accomplishments. I mean, she changed the world, really, when you think of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York real estate has always been a little unhinged\u2014shoebox apartments that cost more than castles, brownstones priced…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":254444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,10336,405,403,30302,5226,5225,5228,5227,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-254443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-categories-things-to-do","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-news-weird-wonderful","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115266852278923723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}