The following is information from a 2008 real estate listing for the building I believe Salinger imagined the Caulfields lived in: 3 East 71st Street. Inside, at least in 2008, it's not the humble sort of building the exterior suggested to me (despite the doorman). The building has a health club and was referred to as "one of Manhattan's most desirable white glove buildings." The asking price was nearly a million dollars.
Living Room |
in 2008 Real Life | in Catcher in the Rye |
4.5 Rooms | (unknown) | |
2 Bedrooms | five? (parents, D.B., Holden, Phoebe, maid) | |
2 Bathrooms | (unknown) | |
Coop | Apartment | |
Doorman | Elevator Boy | |
N and W views | W and S views | |
Great closet space | closet space enough to hide in! |
A gracious 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment, steps away from Fifth Avenue and
Central Park, in one of Manhattan's most desirable white glove buildings. The
elegant living room has high ceilings, a wall of windows and a wood-burning
fireplace. There is a dining area off the windowed kitchen. The oversized
bedroom has a wall of built-in storage cabinets as well as a customed designed
walk-in closet. The second bedroom has many built-in bookcases and the two
bathrooms have been renovated.
Apartment Features:
Building features private storage, central laundry room, and health club. Asking price: $999,000.00 |
Obviously, the unit is not the one Salinger indicated
because of the difference in the number of rooms. Further, with views out the
north and west, it wouldn't include the SW window from which Holden watched
Phoebe cross the street to Central Park (see explanation).
The Dicksteins' lived across the hall from the Caulfields (see page 157-8).
Holden also said there were only two apartments on their floor.
That could have changed,
especially given how much smaller this apartment is than his.
We don't know what floor the listed unit is on, too. The Caulfields
lived on the 12th or 13th floor (see page 88).
We only know the listed unit is high enough to have a partial view of the city,
which could mean only a tiny sliver of a view from a middle floor, but
the listed unit's floor plan
shows a staggered outline on the west side with windows. Only the
upper three
floors have a non-square outline. That means it is on the 12th, 13th, or the
14th floor. The unit could be on the correct floor and be the Dicksteins'.
Well, that's all. This is a fiction book.
Bedroom |
|
Library (presumably Bedroom #2) |
|
Living Room |
a humble Kitchen |