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Stories From Main Street: Mamaroneck's Skinny House Designated National Historic Landmark

MAMARONECK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Just 10 feet wide, Mamaroneck's Skinny House attracts quite a bit of attention. Now it shall be known as a monument to America's great melting pot.

The red, gabled, three-story house has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, WCBS 880's Sean Adams reported.

Ida Santangelo, 93, still lives on Grand Street, two doors down from the Skinny House.

Mamaroneck's Skinny House Designated National Historic Landmark

In the 1930s, her father, Panfilo Santangelo, an Italian immigrant, gave a 12 1/2-foot sliver of his own property to neighbor Nathan Seely, a prosperous African-American before he lost everything in the Great Depression. Seely was a carpenter and developer who built Panfilo Santangelo's house.

"Very easy decision," Ida Santangelo said. "The man needed help to build a house for his family. And my father gave him the land."

It was a gesture of compassion in a time of segregation.

"There was no difference," Ida Santangelo said. "We were friends. We helped each other."

Panfilo Santangelo's granddaughter, Nancy Picarello, loves when schoolchildren visit the Skinny House.

"Hopefully they are taught about the little house, and hopefully they understand what it's about and how it started," she said.

Seely salvaged railroad ties and a chicken coop and used them to build the Skinny House.

Termites have taken a toll. Ida Santangelo hopes to secure restoration money.

"I don't want to see that house fall down," she said.

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