Turtle Bay Gardens Courtyard

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Private garden with no direct street access. Maintained jointly by the owners of the houses that surround it. Prominent residents have included E.B. White, Katharine Hepburn, and Stephen Sondheim.

The gardens are bounded by 20 townhouses, each four stories high; some of them have an additional attic story in the rear, but the street facade is generally uniform in height. The house fronts are extremely simple in design, of harmonious neutral colors, with well proportioned windows, regularly spaced. William Lawrence Bottomley served as architect for the development. The inward-facing facades are Mediterranean styles. The gardens take the place of conventional backyards. Low masonry walls separate individual private gardens from each other, and from a central esplanade which is shared by all. Two old willow trees, benches, and a fountain, a copy of one at the Villa Medici in Rome, grace the central esplanade.

The idea of creating this interior garden court was the inspiration of Mrs. Walton Martin who bought the existing buildings in 1919-20. They were originally built in the 1860s. She filled in the generally swampy backyards and redesigned the houses. The plans of no two houses are alike, although kitchens are generally located on the street side and living rooms usually face the gardens.