Simon Rich, Youngest SNL Writer Ever, Now Youngest Brownstone Owner Ever

Last summer, Simon Rich was in the thrall of Brooklyn Heights, in no small part because the curveball pitch was invented there. "That alone is reason enough to live in this neighborhood," he told The Observer at the time.

 

It must have been the Cobble Hill knuckleball that got the 26-year-old Mr. Rich to cross the Mason-Dixon Line that is Atlantic Avenue, as the author, funnyman and Frank Rich spawn has just purchased the most adorable townhouse in all of Brooklyn. The redbrick rowhouse at 12 Warren Place is located on one of those block-long alleys that dot America's first suburb, though this one is distinct for possessing simpler homes, built for the working classes. It seems an appropriate place for one of the hardest-working writers in New York, who paid $1.198 million for the three-story 1878 wonder, according to city records.

 

"It's just so unique," said listing broker Debra LaChance of Corcoran, who also happens to be the seller. "We only have a few streets like it in Brooklyn or the Village. It's just like London and really is the nicest of them all. Whenever you come home, you turn the corner and it takes you right outside this world."

 

Ms. LaChance, who bought the home in 2007 for $1.1 million, said the only reason she was leaving is because of the rare opportunity to move in with her identical-twin sister, Denise, who is also a Corcoran broker and shared the listing. She has just bought the garden studio in the townhouse where Denise and her husband live. It just so happens that that studio belonged to said-husband's brother, who is also an identical twin. Got that?

 

"We're best friends, and we work together, but we never see each other," Ms. LaChance said. "Now she can just come downstairs for a P.J. party."

 

Besides the intercontinental feel of 12 Warren Place, Ms. LaChance praised its two bathrooms—most of her neighbors in the 26 homes on the block have only one bathroom—and "the great little community" the quiet dead-end street creates. There is a sitting room off the entrance, an office and dining room that leads to a patio on the lower level, and two bedrooms upstairs. Ms. LaChance undertook a modest, modern renovation shortly after she bought the home.

 

She would not directly comment on Mr. Rich as the buyer, but she did allow that selling it to him made leaving a little easier. "It was nice to go to someone that nice," she said. "He seems like someone who will really appreciate the home."