‘The Nanny’: How Much Was the Sheffield House Really Worth?

Maxwell Sheffield, the broadway producer, featured in The Nanny, had a lot going for him. He was wealthy, he was good looking, and pretty successful, although nowhere near as successful as his nemesis, Andrew Llyod Webber. His expansive Manhattan mansion personified just how wealthy he was in comparison to the average person. Can you guess how much the home would have actually cost the British businessman?

Where was the Sheffield residence located?

Exterior shots for the series utilized a building located at 7 East 75th Street in Manhattan. Located on the Upper East Side, the building used for the exterior shots of the Sheffield residence is not a single-family home. Instead, it’s a building that contains 20 different units, consisting of mostly one-bedroom apartments, although larger units are also available. According to Apartment List, a one-bedroom unit in the building will cost residents just over $4,000 per month today. Zillow notes that the 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom penthouse was last rented in 2017 for $6,750. The building was last sold in 2008 for over $14 million.

How large was the home supposed to be?

Manhattan is not known for offering many single-family homes. As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, its residents tend to be apartment dwellers. Even still, if you look hard enough, you can find pretty large homes in Manhattan. The Sheffield residence was one of those elusive, large living spaces. Fran Fine once stated that the home had 19 rooms. We know that there is at least one guest bedroom in the house, and each kid, as well as Maxwell, Niles, and Fran, had their own bedrooms.Maxwell, Fran, and Niles presumably all had their own bathrooms, too, and there was a guest bath downstairs. Assuming the three children shared a bathroom, it’s safe to assume the house had at least seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, and at least one office. The sheer size of the living room suggests the home wasn’t skimping on square footage, either. One can assume the living space was roughly 6,000 square feet, and the Sheffields even enjoyed an outdoor patio, which remains a rarity in New York City.

How much would the home have really cost?

The Nanny ended in 1999 with Max and Fran walking off into the sunset together, leaving New York behind. Even though the show ended with the pair away from New York, their New York City home is what most people associate with the series. So, how much would a space like that really cost?

A quick search of Zillow finds several comparable properties, at least in terms of size and basic floorplan. One home, located on East 74th Street, is currently on the market for $12.4 million. That’s it’s value today, though, 20 years after the Sheffields left Manhattan. The home, however, was sold in 1995, during the series’ six-season run for $5.8 million. Assuming the Sheffield family moved into the home several years before Fran showed up on their doorstep, one can hypothesize the Broadway producer paid about $4 million for his spacious abode.