The Most Photographed House In New York

Behind the Black Door with Anderson Cooper at 84 West 3rd

Tuesday, December 20, 2011, by Pete Davies




Anderson's Italianate hot house on West 3rd, not ready to occupy.



How the old firehouse looked before AC came along.



Books lining the upstair wall and somewhere inside a big bear lurks.



Don't even think of parking it out front.
Anderson Cooper has gone from hot red to basic black outside his nearly-restored fire house at 84 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, where he hopes to set up house before too long. The old garage doors leading into the 1906 Fire Patrol House No. 2 now present a very formidable face, entirely ebonized and declaring "NO PARKING ACTIVE DRIVEWAY" in bold gold letters. AC's move-in date remains a mystery, and the Department of Buildings indicates that the Certificate of Occupancy hasn't yet been issued, showing 13 outstanding requirements. But the silver fox isn't wasting any time getting things together inside, including stocking his gym with historically appropriate equipment, as he recently revealed to USA Today when he let this slip about his eBay shopping spree: "I'm moving into a new building in New York from 1906, so I'm making a gym from the turn of the century. I just bought the old kind of weights with big large balls on the ends. Back then there were gymnasiums, climbing ropes in the ceiling: It's an old firehouse [so] I want it to keep the old firemen's gym."

From outside, the buffed and scrubbed fire house looks nearly ready for Anderson. A security team recently installed cameras to keep an eye on this stretch of sidewalk, where bars and NYU students abound. And the watchful gaze of Mercury, whose limestone bust is set as a keystone above the black doors, will help to keep the kids in line. Above, through the new multi-paned windows, an entire library can be seen, but AC's storied stuffed bear is harder to find. While waiting for a better look at that mounted Ursus ensconced inside, we'll have to settle for this silly vid [see below] of a 9-year old Anderson on "To Tell The Truth" wearing a big fur hat and trying to convince Kitty Carlisle Hart that he's "the world's youngest bear trainer."

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