The Queen Anne style building on the corner of Bowery and Spring was built as a bank in what was in 1898 an affluent, bourgeois district. By the time that Maisel bought it in 1966 for $102,000 the building had long since been abandoned and its stoop claimed as a stomping ground for addicts. Today, the flatiron is impossible to miss for the collage of graffiti displayed there. That, plus the boarded up door, and homeless people still hanging out on the stoop might lead passers by to mistake it for a relic of the Bowery’s seedy past. But a closer look reveals that the doorbell is clearly labeled and the renowned photographer and his family still live in the building. On an invitation inside, a New York Magazine reporter described it as the ultimate “bohemian dream.” Pictures reveal a mastery of the downtown chic aesthetic complete with a mirror motif and fabulous rooftop garden. The mansion, which has since 1898 completed a gentrification cycle, was named a national monument in 2005 and estimates of its current value climb into the ten millions. Although even the graffiti seems to complete the house’s aesthetic (themes among the images include basketball and hair), Maisel insists the exterior has not been designed for effect. In fact, he scrubs it down weekly, a gesture that only seems to encourage return artists. Keith Haring used to cover its exterior in chalk because he liked the impermanence of the medium and the grandeur of the structure. A fixture of the New York art world since the 1960s, the owner used to rent the fourth floor of his house to the pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein, who used the space while he was painting his iconic images taken from comics. Maisel has made a living for his advertisements and images of the New York City skyline.