Martha Plimpton spent four decades in a rent-stabilized Upper West Side apartment before buying her first home at 42.
Now, at 55, she’s preparing to leave her beloved Brooklyn Victorian for London—but not before sharing what this house truly means to her.
It’s more than just a home. It’s proof of resilience, hard work, and a career resurrected from financial collapse.
And it’s filled with stories that reveal how even Hollywood icons face struggles most people never see.
From $300 to Her Dream Home
In 2010, Plimpton—already a three-time Tony nominee and Obie winner—received shocking news from her accountant. She had $300 to her name.
Despite years of prestigious New York stage work, including a Drama Desk Award for “The Coast of Utopia” at Lincoln Center Theater, financial stability had eluded her. Stage acting, no matter how acclaimed, doesn’t always pay the bills.
So Plimpton pivoted to television. Her role in Fox’s black comedy “Raising Hope” earned her an Emmy nomination and changed everything. By 2013, she purchased a three-story Victorian home in Prospect Lefferts Gardens for $1.35 million and completed a full gut renovation.
I worked hard for this house. It was a dream come true.
Why This Brooklyn Neighborhood Won Her Heart
Plimpton’s 2,796-square-foot, four-bedroom home sits in Prospect Lefferts Gardens—a neighborhood she deliberately chose over trendier Brooklyn options.
Cobble Hill and Park Slope were a little too twee for me. In this neighborhood, there are families of all ages, races and demographics.
The tight-knit community became central to Plimpton’s life. Though she lived alone, friends frequently occupied the three guest bedrooms.
I call it ‘The Martha Plimpton House for Wayward Women and Divorcées.’
A Kitchen Built for Cooking, Not Instagram
Plimpton’s farmhouse-style chef’s kitchen defies current design trends. She painted everything in Benjamin Moore’s Linen White—unapologetically.
I know it’s unpopular to have a white kitchen, but if you just paint everything in simple Benjamin Moore Linen White and the ceilings Decorator’s White, then you can change anything in the house whenever you want to.
Her “dream stove” is an Ilve six-burner gas range with griddle, rotisserie, and convection capabilities. For Plimpton, who learned to cook at age 10 while living with her mother, actress Shelley Plimpton, this kitchen represents both function and passion.
She now uses a 1979 edition of Marcella Hazan’s classic Italian cookbook to make Bolognese sauce with tomatoes from her backyard garden. That garden, visible through the kitchen window, produces cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, and string beans under a cherry tree.
When I bought the tree, they said it was a dwarf, but it looks pretty not dwarfy to me.
Treasures With Family History
Plimpton’s dining room houses a custom table crafted from reclaimed wood, positioned beneath an early 1900s chandelier she rescued from a neighbor’s renovation.
But the room’s centerpiece carries deeper meaning: a 1954 Baldwin baby grand piano that belonged to her maternal grandmother, pianist Martha Jane Williams.
This piano was in our tiny living room on the Upper West Side for years, not being played and just falling into disrepair. So when I bought this house, I had it completely restored. I had them put new keys on and piano strings, and I found the bench that the storage company had lost.
Elsewhere sits a table designed and made by Frank Lloyd Wright specifically for Williams, given as thanks for playing piano at his cocktail parties.
Personal Touches Over Professional Awards
Walk through Plimpton’s home and you won’t find her 2012 Emmy for “The Good Wife” prominently displayed. Career accolades remain largely hidden.
I know the work that I’ve done. I was there. I don’t need reminders.
Instead, walls feature meaningful artifacts: a sketch she drew of Walter Matthau in 1996 while filming “I’m Not Rappaport,” a photo from her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show promoting HBO’s “Task,” and an opening night gift from her 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
I loved him. He was warm and funny and a hero of mine.
That’s how Plimpton described Matthau, whose sketch hangs above a photo of Jimmy Kimmel in her dining room gallery wall.
Speaking Truth in Uncertain Times
An American flag from World War I hangs on the second-floor landing—a symbol of Plimpton’s unapologetic patriotism. Unlike many celebrities who remain politically silent, she speaks openly on social media.
I am a patriot. I love my country for all of its flaws and imperfections. I feel like these people don’t believe in the Constitution. They don’t believe in the rule of law. They don’t believe in fairness, equality and justice. I think they’re fascists, and I want them out of my country.
A Sanctuary Created From Struggle
Plimpton’s third-floor master bedroom required removing walls, raising ceilings by three feet, and installing a bathroom with a clawfoot tub and heated towel rack. The all-white room reflects simplicity and peace.
In 2026, she’ll leave this Brooklyn sanctuary for an apartment she’s rented in London for years. But this house—purchased after financial devastation, renovated with television earnings, and filled with family heirlooms and friend gatherings—represents something irreplaceable.
From a 1980s icon in “The Goonies,” “Parenthood,” and “The Mosquito Coast” to a stage actress with $300 in the bank, Plimpton’s journey proves that success isn’t linear. Sometimes career resurrection happens in your 40s. Sometimes your first home purchase comes after decades of instability.
And sometimes, a Victorian house in Brooklyn becomes the physical manifestation of refusing to give up—even when circumstances suggest you should.