“That’s the kind of man he was,” Nancy Picarello, 65, said of Mr. Santangelo, her grandfather. (Ms. Picarello has lived next to the Skinny House for many years.)

With little money to purchase new building materials, Mr. Seely salvaged and recycled everything from railroad ties to windows to banisters — even a chicken coop — to incorporate into his house, which was 37 feet long. “He included elements of charm and conveniences for his wife as well,” the state submission said. “Besides the three ornate gables in the front facing facade, he added a ledge for flowerpots just under the second level window.”

To ensure that wind did not blow the house over, he fastened the structure to the ground with steel cables on each side that are still visible today.

The Grand Street home is one of a number of renowned “skinny houses” in the United States and Europe. Amsterdam stands out for its collection, the narrowest being a building at 22 Oude Hoogstraat that was constructed in 1733 and stands just six and a half feet wide.

The neighborly origins of Mr. Seely’s Skinny House set it apart from other similar structures, which are sometimes called “spite houses,” because those who built them often did so to annoy their neighbors. According to the state submission, a “spite house” built in Alexandria, Va., around 1830 was erected “to fill an alley after the neighboring property owner grew tired of carriage wheels scraping against the walls of his house.”

“Mamaroneck’s Skinny House stands as the polar opposite of a spite house,” the submission said. “It reflects friendship and compassion between neighbors, rather than animosity.”

After Mr. Seely died in 1962, members of his family continued to live in the Skinny House until 1986. Ida Santangelo, 92, the daughter of Panfilo Santangelo, bought the house in 1988 and has mostly rented it out to tenants, the submission said. She still lives two houses away.