- Year built
- 1888
- Type
- Condominium
- Landmark
- Designated
Stuyvesant Square is one of Manhattan's most intact nineteenth-century enclaves — a fenced private-and-public square at the edge of Gramercy, ringed by churches, institutional buildings, and brownstones, and protected as a historic district. The Abbey, at 203 East 16th Street, is one of the rarest things you can buy in that setting: a residence inside a designated landmark. Built in 1888 as the Parish House (St. George's Memorial House) for St. George's Church and designed by Leopold Eidlitz in rock-faced Romanesque Revival brownstone, it was later converted to a boutique condominium of 32 homes.
The appeal is the architecture and the address. Few buildings offer original landmark detail — high ceilings, stained glass, masonry interiors — inside a condominium ownership structure, and fewer still on a protected square a short walk from Gramercy Park, Union Square, and the East Side's transit. For a buyer who values character and history over a deep amenity package, The Abbey is one of the most distinctive options in the Gramercy/Stuyvesant Square area.
A note on addresses: the building is marketed under both 203 and 205 East 16th Street; these refer to the same landmark condominium. The 203 address is the building's tax-lot designation.
Architecture and unit composition
The Abbey is a six-story Romanesque Revival landmark in rock-faced brownstone, designed by Leopold Eidlitz and completed in 1888 as a church parish house. Its conversion to residential condominium use, completed in the mid-2000s, created 32 apartments along with a small number of professional suites, while preserving the building's exterior and much of its architectural character.
Because the building began life as an institutional structure rather than an apartment house, the residences are individual and varied rather than uniform — apartments feature original details such as stained-glass windows, marble wainscoting, and dramatic ceiling heights that ordinary residential conversions cannot replicate. Layouts, light, and the survival of original detail drive much of the variation among homes. It is an elevator building at boutique scale, without the large-building amenity program of a postwar tower — by design.
Building operations
The Abbey operates as a boutique condominium within the Stuyvesant Square Historic District. As a 32-unit conversion of a landmark structure, the building's profile is character-led rather than amenity-led: elevator service and the architectural distinction of the building itself are the draw, rather than a gym-and-lounge package.
Carrying costs on a condominium are expressed as common charges plus separately billed real estate taxes. Landmark-district and conversion buildings carry particular diligence considerations — the upkeep of a designated façade, the mechanical systems of a converted historic structure, and the building's reserve position all warrant attention. Buyers should review the condominium's financials, reserves, and any assessment or capital-project history, and confirm current house rules and any amendments at offer stage. The Roebling Research Library maintains current building materials for clients.
Recent sales
Because The Abbey is a 32-unit boutique condominium in a landmark building, individual apartments come to market infrequently, and each sale carries meaningful weight in the building's pricing picture. As a condo, value is read on a price-per-square-foot basis, but the building's character premium — original landmark detail, ceiling heights, the Stuyvesant Square address — means apartments are often priced and bought on their architecture and individuality as much as on raw square footage. Floor, layout, light, and the survival of original detail drive the variation. Condo flexibility broadens the buyer pool. Our sales view for the building reflects recorded transfers as they post.
Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 15, 2006 | SUPER | 1,279 sf | $977,520 | $764/sf |
| May 12, 2006 | 1F | 2,150 sf | $1,985,588 | $924/sf |
Market read. Most recent trades (2006) cleared a median $924/sf across 2 sales.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00897-7501) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
You're buying a landmark. Original Romanesque Revival detail, ceiling heights, and the Stuyvesant Square setting are the building's defining features — and the reason apartments here are not interchangeable. Tour the specific home; no two are alike.
Condo flexibility is real. Expect 30–45 day closings; foreign buyers welcome; pied-à-terre and investment use permitted under the declaration. Confirm current subletting and house rules at offer stage.
Do landmark-conversion diligence. Review the condominium's financials, reserves, and any assessment or capital-project history, and understand the obligations that come with a designated landmark façade and a converted historic structure.
Run the price-per-foot and mansion tax math with the character premium in mind. Use the Mansion Tax Calculator, and benchmark against the building's own sales rather than generic neighborhood averages.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the architecture and the address. The landmark status, the original detail, and the Stuyvesant Square setting are the emotional and rational hooks; they are what set this building apart from any conventional condo in the area.
Price on the apartment's individuality. Because no two homes are alike, benchmark against the building's own recent sales and the specific home's detail, light, and layout rather than a flat per-foot average.
Use condo flexibility as a selling point. Fast closings, no co-op board interview, and pied-à-terre/investment latitude widen the qualified-buyer pool relative to the area's co-ops.
Comparable buildings
If you're weighing The Abbey, these nearby Gramercy and Stuyvesant Square co-ops and condos make a useful comparison set:
- 200 East 16th Street — a Gramercy/Stuyvesant Square–edge residential building
- 200 East 20th Street — a full-service building near Gramercy Park
- 130 East 18th Street (Gramercy Plaza) — a full-service postwar co-op near Gramercy Park
- 117 East 18th Street — a nearby Gramercy co-op
- 195 Third Avenue (Park Towers) — a full-service postwar Gramercy cooperative
The Roebling Team at The Abbey
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Gramercy, Stuyvesant Square, and the broader East Side co-op and condo market. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers evaluating a landmark condominium deserve building-specific intelligence — the realities of owning in a designated historic structure, the diligence a conversion building requires, and where individual apartments sit in value given their architecture.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at The Abbey, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point. We'll bring the full context this page provides plus the transactional specifics your situation requires — financial structuring, due diligence priorities, comparable analysis at the apartment level, and the pacing strategy that fits your timeline.
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Gramercy — read The Roebling Team Guide to Gramercy.
Get the full picture on this building.
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