Bunny Mellon's Upper East Side Townhouse

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The 11,100-square-foot, 14-room townhouse at 125 East 70th Street, built in 1965 by banking heir Paul Mellon and his wife, horticulturist Bunny Mellon, has hit the market for $46 million. In order to help put this house in context, here are some facts about the Mellons, taken from their respective Wikipedia pages.

· Bunny's grandfather invented Listerine.

· Paul, an owner/breeder of racehorses, is one of only five people to be designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

· Bunny redesigned the White House Rose Garden for her longtime friend Jacqueline Kennedy.

· Paul wrote an autobiography titled Reflections in a Silver Spoon.
· Bunny still (as of 2011) does Pilates, "which she learned from the exercise's inventor Joseph Pilates more than 50 years ago."

So, as you may have gathered, the house is extremely nice. Designed in the Neoclassic French style, it includes three exposures, gardens in the front and back (the one in the back has a reflecting pool and a gazebo), and pretty much every different type of room you can think of—drawing room, study, library, formal dining room, powder rooms, staff rooms, breakfast room, etc. The house last sold in 2006 for $22.5 million, and is now, somewhat ambitiously, asking more than twice that, although it doesn't look like the new owners made any changes (as well they shouldn't).