A four-story brownstone on West 113th Street in Harlem is a tourist attraction little known to many New Yorkers.
But when it went on the market in 2017, the open house drew a line that stretched down the street. It was filled with people who had traveled from across the country and had no intention of buying — they just wanted a peek inside the place, the former home of the escape artist Harry Houdini.
Niroshana Anandasabapathy and Vincent Toms were outliers. They were in the throes of an exhausting house hunt. The couple was looking for a four-bedroom home in a vibrant community, ideally close to a park, to raise their two children in. They had already seen seven or eight houses that day, and this listing, at $4.6 million, was “orders of magnitude” outside their price range, Ms. Anandasabapathy said.
They knew little of the Houdini connection.
But they admired the original details they had seen in photos and Ms. Anandasabapathy saw the place’s potential. She wanted to preserve as much as possible. They bought the house, at 278 West 113th Street, for $3.6 million in May 2018.
Houdini fans have been drawn to 278, as the magician fondly called it, for decades. “Taxis would pull up in front of the house, and people would get out and look,” recalled Fred Thomas, the previous owner who bought it in 1991, before the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center installed a plaque on the house commemorating Houdini’s time there.
Initially wary of the intense interest in their new home, Ms. Anandasabapathy and Mr. Toms have since embraced the Houdini community and will welcome a select group in for three black-tie séances on Halloween, the centennial of Houdini’s death.
The holiday has been an especially popular time for strangers to knock on the front door, Mr. Thomas said. “We usually did a disappearing act,” he recalled.
John Cox, a Houdini historian and author, followed a UPS deliveryman through the gate of 278 in 2005, but was turned away. When Mr. Thomas put the property up for sale, Mr. Cox flew to New York from Los Angeles for the open house and spent three hours inside.
When Ms. Anandasabapathy and Mr. Toms moved in, the madness continued.
“We had magicians diving in our trash and coming up and ringing the doorbell,” Ms. Anandasabapathy said. They wondered if they’d made a mistake buying the house. “There have been some extremists, and we have young kids,” she said.
In 2020, Dan Gutman, a children’s book author who lives nearby, spotted the historical marker outside 278 on a walk. Inspiration struck: What if he wrote a story about a boy growing up there and texting with Houdini’s ghost? He opened the gate and approached the door when a light went on inside, and Mr. Toms emerged, angrily ordering him off the property. “I felt horrible, and I slunk away with my tail between my legs,” Mr. Gutman said.
But he did write the book, “Houdini and Me.” When it was published, he dropped off a copy, along with a written apology and a business card. Mr. Toms promptly emailed to explain his reaction and invited Mr. Gutman and his family over for a tour. They became friends.
Ms. Anandasabapathy and Mr. Toms have become increasingly fascinated with Houdini, finding an invaluable resource in “Wild About Harry,” Mr. Cox’s blog. Within a few months of buying the house, they invited him inside.
He said that Houdini had wired the house for sound to eavesdrop on visitors and later pretend he could read their minds, so he urged them not to throw away any mysterious wiring found behind their walls.
They found plenty — collecting some and leaving more for future generations to discover. They uncovered a tin ceiling and sourced a rare period heart pine from Florida to match the floors. Ms. Anandasabapathy keeps records of everything original in the house. “I didn’t want to throw anything out, because it’s so important to this community,” she said.
But not everything has been restored to its original design. There are now heated floors in the primary bathroom. The magician’s former bedroom is occupied by the couple’s 13-year-old daughter and her pet gargoyle gecko, Percy. It’s decorated with butterflies, a gauzy canopy and paper flowers.
The renovation also come with an unexpected $25,000 expense to close up the back of the house during the winter. Mr. Toms had a novel solution: He sold old bricks from the property online for $100 each. The couple was grateful when around 200 sold, helping to cover the bill.
For their part, the couple have welcomed in many magicians and Houdini devotees for tours.
The séances on Saturday are limited to 13 guests each. The tickets start at $1,000 and include a tour, reception, brick and other souvenirs, and a presentation from Mr. Cox.
He declined when the couple offered to pay him. Instead, he made a counteroffer: Let him stay in the house overnight. “For me to be sleeping in 278 on Halloween, the 100th anniversary, how is that not the best thing ever?”
The post They Bought Harry Houdini’s House. It Came With a Gaggle of Magic Fans. appeared first on New York Times.
