138 East 36th Street

The building is a typical and handsome example of mid-1910s Manhattan apartment design: a masonry elevator house with a modest limestone base, brick shaft, and restrained early-twentieth-century detailing. At 31 units across ten floors, the layout runs to roughly three to four apartments per floor, a configuration whose actual circulation and noise should be assessed in the apartment.

Inside, the apartments carry the pre-war features buyers come to Murray Hill for — higher ceilings than post-war stock, separate kitchens, hardwood floors, and the solid plaster-and-masonry construction that makes these buildings quiet. As an older cooperative, line-to-line variation is real: some homes have been gut-renovated to a contemporary finish while others retain original detail and offer a value-add opportunity. The recorded residential area of roughly 41,000 square feet divided among 31 homes is a gross-area ratio, not a measure of individual interiors or evidence of the bedroom mix; review unit plans and legal occupancy records.

138 East 36th Street operates as a traditional cooperative. The building offers part-time door attendance backed by a resident superintendent who lives on site. Shared facilities include a central laundry room, private storage, a bike room, and a planted interior courtyard that gives rear-facing apartments light, air, and quiet.

The building is pet-friendly (species and limits not stated). Expect board review of purchaser applications; financing is capped at 90% of the purchase price, and subletting is permitted with conditions. Confirm the current financing, liquidity, occupancy and subletting requirements from the governing documents and application instructions.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $796/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 3.7% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00891-0062). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

This is a pre-war cooperative, so the purchase clears through a board: expect a full financial package, an interview, and a financing cap on the percentage of the price you may borrow. Underwrite the all-in monthly carry — maintenance plus financing — rather than price alone, and read the building's financials for reserve health and any planned capital work, which matters for any masonry building approaching and passing the century mark. Confirm the current pet policy and sublet terms against your own plans early.

The upside is specific: a pre-war home in Murray Hill with Grand Central and multiple subway lines nearby. Compare its apartment features and total carrying costs with specific Park and Fifth Avenue alternatives before drawing a price or value conclusion.

Pricing a sale here is a comparable-driven exercise: with only 31 units and light turnover, the relevant set is recent closings in the building and in the immediate Murray Hill pre-war cooperative cohort. The features that move buyers are the Murray Hill address, the pet policy, renovation quality, light and exposure, and the manageable maintenance.

Presentation matters in a building of this kind. A renovated, well-staged apartment that photographs to its pre-war strengths — ceiling height, proportion, light — can be compared with unrenovated homes to assess condition adjustments; neither renovation nor presentation guarantees a price premium. We price to the building's real ceiling rather than the broad neighborhood average, and we prepare the board package so a qualified buyer presents a complete, well-documented file; approval remains the board's decision.

If you're considering 138 East 36th Street, also look at these Murray Hill and Midtown East buildings, checking construction era and ownership terms individually:

• 160 East 38th Street — Murray Hill cooperative a few blocks north
• 144 East 36th Street — pre-war cooperative on the same block
• 20 East 35th Street — Murray Hill pre-war peer
• 225 East 34th Street — nearby East 34th Street building; compare ownership terms and services