Call it Carnegie “Haul” for one stubborn tenant.
A 96-year-old woman living in one of the last remaining apartments above Carnegie Hall has been slapped with an eviction notice by the state – although the scrappy tenant vowed yesterday that they’ll have to “drag me out” with “their bare hands.”
“I’m never leaving,” Editta Sherman, a portrait photographer who has spent more than a half-century in her rent-controlled studio apartment above the famed concert venue, told The Post.
“They’ll have to drag me out. They’ll have to use their bare hands.”
Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, Sherman lives on West 57th Street in a $530-a-month, 800-square-foot studio that Carnegie Hall plans to turn into office and classroom space as part of a massive $150 million overhaul.
The grand apartment – used regularly by Vogue magazine for fashion shoots in the 1960s – features floor-to-ceiling windows, black-and-white checkered floor tiles and a cast-iron staircase.
Despite the start of eviction procedures against her, Sherman, who has photographed famous personalities such as artist Andy Warhol and actors Henry Fonda, Eva Gabor and Paul Newman, said she would not let the curtain fall on her beloved place.
“I’ve lived here for so long,” she said. “My memories of people I’ve photographed are here.”
Since Carnegie Hall embarked on the rehab project, 43 residents have lost their battle to stay, while one rent-controlled tenant vacated on his own.
Carnegie Hall spokeswoman Synneve Carlino said rent-controlled tenants received an eviction letter last week from the state.
Carlino also said tenants were sent a letter in October to remind them “that we wished to speak about relocation plans.”
In the letter, Carlino said they “reiterated our commitment to relocate them to equivalent or superior apartments in the neighborhood, paying any differential in rent for the remainder of their lives.”
But the feisty Sherman vowed to fight any attempt to get her booted from her apartment.
She also said she plans to celebrate her 97th birthday next July in the apartment she has called home since 1946.
“I’m going to keep on living here,” she said.