Michelle Williams recently bought this $10.8 million townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. (Williams: Getty Images)
Michelle Williams has a knack for identifying and investing in incredible Brooklyn real estate. The four-time Academy Award nominee is almost as talented at buying, selling, and renting homes in Brooklyn as she is at acting. Since moving to the borough in 2005, she’s lived in some of Brooklyn’s coolest and most under-the-radar neighborhoods. And while there are many celebrities who live in Brooklyn now, she was on to the borough way before the other A-listers arrived. StreetEasy went down a rabbit hole of the actress’s many homes over the years to get to the bottom of the hotly debated question: Exactly where does Michelle Williams live? We have to admit, we don’t regret a minute of it.
Williams Moves to NYC and Soon Buys a Dreamy Boerum Hill Townhouse
Williams moved to New York City after wrapping the sixth and final season of “Dawson’s Creek.” At the time, she was just barely 23 and excited to pursue her acting career in the Big Apple. The move brought everything full circle: On the show, she played Jen Lindley, who at the series’s start relocates from New York City to a small seaside town and befriends Dawson, Joey, and Pacey.
In 2005, a year after meeting on the set of “Brokeback Mountain,” Williams and Heath Ledger bought a $3.6 million townhouse at 126 Hoyt St. in Boerum Hill. Brooklyn was certainly a shift from the Canadian Rockies, where “Brokeback” was filmed, but the couple had no trouble settling in and were often seen pushing their daughter, Matilda, around the neighborhood in a stroller. In 2006, Ledger said, “I like everything about Brooklyn. I adore it.”
Of course, owning this gorgeous, 22-foot-wide corner townhouse with a three-car garage probably contributed to his affection for the neighborhood. The home was stunning, with six bedrooms, a landscaped roof deck, a wine cellar, and almost every modern amenity imaginable. After Williams and Ledger split in 2007, she remained on Hoyt Street, while he relocated to SoHo. A year later, Ledger unexpectedly passed away.
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Williams Relocates After Ledger’s Death, Then Returns to Brooklyn
After the shock of Ledger’s death in 2008, Williams moved to a farmhouse in upstate New York, where she sought “a sane home environment” away from the public eye. After several years upstate she returned to Brooklyn, resettling in Red Hook, where she rented an enormous and spectacular loft at 275 Conover Street.
True to form for Williams, she chose a Brooklyn gem: The building, located directly above the beloved Red Hook Fairway, is a quintessential industrial warehouse loft where many units contain exposed brick and beams. Its waterfront location offers jaw-dropping views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline. Unfortunately, in October 2012, Superstorm Sandy damaged the entire Red Hook area. It is unclear if Williams was forced to relocate, but she certainly seems to have stayed in Brooklyn.
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Williams Sells the Boerum Hill Townhouse…
Six years after Ledger’s death, Williams finally parted ways with the Boerum Hill townhouse they shared. She listed the property in September 2014 for $7.5 million and it sold two months later for $8.8 million, 17% above the asking price. At the time, it marked one of the most expensive single-family homes ever sold in Brooklyn. Further proving her real estate acumen, Williams sold the property well ahead of the 2019 changes to the New York City mansion tax, which would have substantially impacted her gains. On top of that, the number of homes selling over ask, especially in the luxury market, has declined steadily since 2015.
…and Buys a Victorian in Prospect Park South
A year after the Hoyt Street sale, Williams again made waves in the Brooklyn real estate market by purchasing a ramshackle Victorian mansion at 1440 Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South for $2.5 million. This area is among the lesser-known neighborhoods bordering Prospect Park, dense with unique, turn-of-the-century single-family homes. Williams’s property, dubbed the “Tara of Prospect Park South,” stands out from its neighbors, occupying an oversized corner lot on a tree-lined boulevard. She clearly loves those corner locations!
Built in 1905 in the Colonial-Revival style, the expansive home features a colonnaded front porch, wide bay windows, a dramatic central staircase, and tons of fine woodwork. Much of the property was in desperate need of repair, so Williams undertook renovations starting in 2016. As you can see below, as of June 2018 renovations to the exterior were still underway, but by June 2019, much of that work looked completed.
So Where Does Michelle Williams Live Now?
In 2019, Williams embraced change big time: She became engaged to Thomas Kail, the Tony Award–winning director of the Broadway smash “Hamilton” — he also directed her in “Fosse/Verdon,” for which she won an Emmy — and recently announced that they are expecting a baby. And she closed out the year by buying this $10.8 million townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. Phew! The townhouse is yet another expansive corner property, located at 55 Willow Street off of Orange Street, one of the famously charming Brooklyn Heights fruit streets.
There are no listing records for this home, since it was an off-market deal, but the property spans 3,000 square feet and was last sold for $5.47 million in 2007. The address puts this accomplished couple two blocks over from The Standish, where Matt Damon, John Krasinski, and Emily Blunt all own apartments, and just down the street from 70 Willow Street, a stately Greek Revival townhouse where Truman Capote once lived. Based on the area’s creative pedigree, Williams and Kail should fit in just fine.
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