When Harper Lee passed away in 2016, the monthly rent for her stabilized Manhattan apartment was $845.89. Harper Lee, the renowned writer of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” divided her time between Yorkville and her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Even though she hadn’t lived in her ground-floor one-bedroom apartment since suffering a stroke in 2007, she held onto the lease for another nine years until her death at the age of 89. The apartment remained vacant until last year, when the current tenants rented it for $2,950 per month, according to a recent lawsuit filed by the couple.
Interestingly, when the lease expired on May 31st of last year, the same day Con Ed discovered a gas leak and shut off the gas to the building, the tenants mutually agreed to reduce their rent to $2,450 due to the lack of cooking gas. The basement laundry room’s gas dryers are also out of service. At the time of her passing, Harper Lee paid $845.89 for her ground-floor unit in this Yorkville building.
After remaining vacant for six years following her passing, the unit was listed for rent at $3,150 per month. The lawsuit states that the apartment was rented to Harper Lee, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, from 1967 until her death in 2016. It goes on to argue that it was illegal to deregulate the apartment, leading to the demand for the rent to be rolled back to $845.89. The tenants are also seeking treble damages for the overcharges, as well as interest and legal fees.
According to the rent history of the apartment, in 1984, when the law required landlords to register stabilized rents with the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Harper Lee paid $291.74 per month, which equals $879.02 in today’s dollars. Harper Lee is most famous for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Some neighbors recall that the apartment underwent renovations sometime after Lee’s passing but cannot recall the exact timeframe. The apartment, located in a 1950s brick building, is historic yet nondescript, facing a courtyard with trees. It was initially listed on StreetEasy for $3,150 per month. When the current tenants’ one-year lease expired, it was not renewed, although they continued to pay rent, as stated in the lawsuit.
Harper Lee’s neighbors in the building, some of whom still reside there, report having a friendly relationship with her. The reason for the tenants not being offered a lease renewal remains unknown.
Lee arrived in New York in 1949 and worked as an airline reservation agent. She resided in a cold-water flat on East 82nd Street until around 1967 when her building was demolished to make way for a 20-story rental tower, prompting her to move across the street. Without a spouse or children, Harper Lee kept her personal matters private and was known by her first name, Nelle, pronounced as “Nell.” One neighbor described her approximately 600 square feet apartment as “jam-packed and piled with stuff.” According to Steve Austern, the live-in property manager, Lee remained up-to-date with her rent even during her years away from New York.
The current tenants and the real estate agent who listed the apartment last year declined to comment. Harper Lee’s second novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” published posthumously, caused controversy as it portrayed Atticus Finch with differing racial views, contrasting with his character in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which dealt with racial issues in the Deep South.
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