9b: Jeanette Solomon
The late Jeanette Solomon’s eight-room apartment went on the market in March, with Ms. Steinberg from the boutique brokerage Edward Lee Cave. But, according to the broker database ROLEX, it’s already gone to contract: The listing price was $16.5 million (plus a staggering monthly maintenance of $6,816.29), yet a source said the sales price would be millions more because of a bidding war.
That source said the buyer is Charles Schwab, who lives upstairs. If he closes on the contract, he’ll get a “perfect couple’s apartment,” according to the listing, with “spectacular Central Park and city skyline views; grand scaled rooms with all original architectural details intact; beautiful hardwood floors; oversized windows throughout.”
Calls to Mr. Schwab’s press office and Ms. Solomon’s son were not returned.
9 and 10c: John and Eugenie Radziwill
During her previous marriage, Mr. Radziwill’s wife lived downstairs. Racy!
“They’re very nice; they’re a very nice couple,” neighbor Ms. Stanton said. The nice people’s apartment used to belong to Canadian Frank McMahon, whose horse Majestic Prince won the Kentucky Derby.
Mr. Radziwill is the son of Prince Stanislas Radziwill, the onetime husband of Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ sister Lee.
10b: Carroll Petrie
This is Ms. Petrie’s second apartment in 834 Fifth; her first was the Clinton-friendly spread on the fifth floor. How does one get two apartments at 834 Fifth Avenue? It helps to have been married to the philanthropist Milton Petrie, whose 119-page will had 439 beneficiaries.
11 and 12a: Robert Wood (Woody) Johnson IV
That Mr. Johnson owns the Jets, or is one of the biggest Republican fund-raisers in the country, or is a billionaire heir to a pharmaceuticals fortune, matters much less to his neighbors than the fact that he’s the head of the co-op board.
Nevertheless, he’s spent most of his time across the park since buying a shiny 49th-floor penthouse at Trump International in 2004.
“It’s four or five people; they’re very powerful,” Ms. Stanton said about the board. “Woody Johnson has been the president for a long time—they more or less do what they want.”
11b: Christopher and Jane Johnson
Mr. Johnson is 12 years younger than his brother Woody, which makes him a baby in the building. “We don’t have really younger people,” said Ms. Stanton.
12b: Damon and Liz Mezzacappa
“There’s been very little change in the past 20 years,” said longtime owner Mr. Mezzacappa. “We’ve had some changes in the occupants of the building, but that’s perfectly normal. There are typically very few problems, and everything runs pretty smoothly. It’s very boring!”
What part is most exciting? “We’re right across from the zoo, and we can look down on the seals and that kind of thing. It’s very pleasant.”
13 and 14a: Hal Prince
Beloved Broadway producer Hal Prince, who has more Tony Awards than anyone else, is hardly the most famous person to have slept in his master bedroom.
Elizabeth Arden came
first, then Charlotte Ford (whose mother Anne lived in two separate apartments downstairs), and then purebred Cornelius (Sonny) Vanderbilt Whitney and his wife Marylou. (That couple are horse racers, too: they won the Belmont Stakes three years ago.)
13b: Mrs. Buckhantz
The mysterious, aged Mrs. Buckhantz is the cousin of monumental oilman Nubar Gulbenkian. When a reporter called for an interview, a nurse said, “She’s not able to conduct any formal business anymore.”
15a: Charles Schwab
Iconic billionaire Mr. Schwab could be excused for wanting an upgrade. A broker who has seen this tiny co-op said there was “a kitchen you couldn’t swing a cat in,” though it’s “a divine little apartment.”
13, 14, 15: Rupert and Wendi Murdoch
Poor Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch: It costs them $22,573 each month to maintain their new apartment, according to a source. Yet it’s been 24 whole months since they closed on their $44 million triplex, and they still haven’t moved in.
Apparently, the late Mr. Rockefeller’s place needed work. “In his last couple of years,” Mr. Mezzacappa said, “he was not quite as alert as he had been.”
Has Mr. Murdoch’s renovation been bothersome? “Sure, construction can be a nuisance, but it happens,” Mr. Mezzacappa said. “People spend lots of money to live in the building, and they have a perfectly natural desire to have the apartment as they want it.”
Mr. Murdoch’s 20-room, seven-bedroom apartment will be grander than the place he used to own downstairs, well before his marriage to Wendi. Incidentally, his ex-wife Anna has since married William Mann—the widower of Lydia Buhl, whose mother lived in the Swid place.
834 Fifth is a changeless co-op club! “It’s not a club, it’s a building,” Mr. Mezzacappa said. “If someone wants to buy an apartment in the building, and they’re qualified financially and so forth, there’s not a problem.”
