Stephen Sondheim was a city boy, a born Upper West Sider who in 1960 bought a townhome on 49th Street with the profits of Gypsy, then lived there for the rest of his life — mostly. He also had a country escape, a retreat in Roxbury, Connecticut, that saw more use as he got older. He bought that house in 1980 on the advice of Peter Wooster, the designer friend who knew the area and eventually settled in the property’s carriage house. The composer was there off and on — including on the fated weekend in 1995 when a fire swept through the townhouse (thankfully sparing his manuscripts, but killing his dog). Neighbors in the Turtle Bay garden district remember that he was rarely in town after the pandemic hit.

 

Read the article from November 10, 2023