The $12 Million West Village Home With A Secret Speakeasy Tunnel

If there was one word to describe the West Village, we'd pick "charming." But amid the tree-lined streets, remnants of cobblestones, and brick and brownstone townhouses, there sits a home that holds more charm in one of its shutters than the whole neighborhood itself.

Behold, 17 Grove Street, NYC's rustic real estate outlier. Built in 1822, it's one of the oldest - and only - wood frame homes left in Manhattan, and it's just been put on the market for $12 million. Needless to say, the property (which also includes an accompanying 2-story home and former shop), has gotten plenty of attention over the years.

But besides its historic facade, which features clapboard siding and lovely salmon-pink accents, original interior woodwork, beamed ceilings, and brick-floored, country-style kitchen, the house stands out for one very illicit reason: a secret underground tunnel, which leads straight to Chumley's, the infamous speakeasy at 86 Bedford.

According to the StreetEasy Blog, it was built for William Hyde, a window-sash maker, whose shop was located in the attached structure behind it at 100 Bedford St. It's been in the possession of the Taffner family since 1999, passing down from Donald Taffner, the producer who brought Three's Company to television, to his daughter, Karen Taffner Butler.

While its unclear how the home was precisely involved in prohibition-era dealings, the tunnel still leads up to the footprint of Chumley's, which re-opened in 2016, although it's been boarded up past that point.

Still, these walls probably hold some seriously wild stories. For $12 mil, they just might talk...

Click through for a peek inside!

[Photos via Corcoran/StreetEasy]