Where Does Christine Baranski Live? Exploring the Gilded Age Star’s Real Estate Portfolio

Her Gilded Age character lives in a grand Upper East Side brownstone, but where does Christine Baranski live? The Emmy- and Tony–winning actor was born in Buffalo, New York, and still owns property in her home state in the form of a Manhattan pied-à-terre—and yes, like Agnes van Rhijn’s on screen dwelling, it is on the Upper East Side. However, the Good Wife star primarily lives in Connecticut, where her late husband grew up and where the couple raised their two daughters, Isabel and Lily.Read on to learn more about Baranski’s property portfolio.Connecticut homesFor decades, Baranski has lived in Connecticut’s Litchfield County. Her first visit to the region was on a 1982 motorcycle ride; her future husband, fellow actor Matthew Cowles, was the driver. Cowles grew up in an 18th-century farmhouse in the small town of Bethlehem. “I had such a feeling of destiny about it,” Baranski recalled in a 2008 interview, “I loved it. I loved the smells in the air, the farms, the field. It was a dream. When Matthew took me into his home, I thought, ‘We’re gonna raise children here.’” The couple married the next year, briefly residing in an NYC apartment before returning to raise their daughters, born in 1984 and in 1987, in Cowles’s childhood home. “I had such a sense of eternity, like I was meant to be there,” she added.A 2003 interview reported that Baranski primarily lived in Bethlehem and maintained a lake house about half an hour away, and it seems that this is still the case. “I have a marvelous house on a lake in Connecticut and I’ve hosted some very famous actors there,” the actor said in a recent interview with The Guardian, adding that those famed visitors have, on occasion, stripped naked for a swim. “It has a very long dock that has been ‘grandfathered’ in, as in they don’t allow a dock that long to be built anymore, but this is about 100 years old. You sit in the living room in summer and watch the sun set, and then go out into the evening and skinny dip in the lake.”Cowles died in 2014, but Baranski remains deeply rooted in his hometown. The Mamma Mia! star is so entrenched in the community that she became active in the Housatonic Valley Association, a local environmental nonprofit, and currently serves as one of its directors. “I enjoy so much the beauty of Litchfield County,” Baranski said in 2009. “I couldn't imagine living in a more beautiful place.”Upper East Side co-op unitsIn 2004, Baranski bought a pied-à-terre on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $1.27 million. Located in a 1920s structure where Jackie Kennedy lived as a child, the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment featured a 21-foot-long living room with hardwood floors, a wood-burning fireplace flanked by built-in bookshelves, and yellow striped wallpaper. A galley kitchen opened to a small dining room painted a soft sage green and decorated with elegant paintings in ornate gold frames, while the bedrooms were done up in distinct palettes: one was blue and white, while the other was tan with pops of red and orange. Both had their own ensuite bath.“Happily, now after years of commuting to LA and trying to do the whole bicoastal thing, The Good Wife shoots in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,” Baranski said in a 2011 New York Times article. “Our kids are grown up and in graduate school, so I have this life where I can enjoy the city and not worry about racing home to Connecticut.” The actor shared her typical Sunday routine in the city, which included reading in a café, visiting museums, and seeing friends. “I tend to call Sundays a girlfriend day because my husband is in Connecticut, so more often than not I’m alone here, which is a chance to catch up with girlfriends,” she said. “I might do a lunch at one of the hole-in-the-wall French bistros in the neighborhood, but sometimes I skip lunch in favor of an early dinner.” Then, the actor turns in early. “If I’m in town on a Sunday, it usually means I’m working Monday, and often I’m the first shot of the day, which means you’re up at 4:30. That means going to bed early. So I’ll go to my early dinner and then try to get myself to sleep by 9 or 9:30.”Inhabitants of the co-op building, designed by architect Lafayette A. Goldstone, have access to a backyard garden, a gym, and a laundry room. Baranski listed her unit in the nine-story building in February 2021 for $1.39 million, and it sold that June.Upgraded duplex unitBaranski didn’t move too far, however. In December 2020, the Good Fight star upgraded to a larger $2.2 million duplex unit in the same building. Listing photos showed that the home was sold with a few spaces under construction, so she likely added some custom touches before moving in. The apartment has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a much larger, eat-in kitchen than the one found in Baranski’s previous unit. It still boasts a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, accessed from the foyer through an arched doorway. On its other end, the living room opens to a spacious formal dining room. A guest bedroom rounds out the lower level. The remaining bedrooms are at the top of a winding staircase. Another fireplace, tucked between built-ins, graces one bedroom, which shares a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with another bedroom—which could be used as a dressing room—that boasts six closets. The final bedroom has a full ensuite bathroom.The Cybill star still owns the duplex.