Harrison Street Houses

 interesting place, apartment building, townhouses, Federal style (architecture)

Harrison Street has a collection of 18th and 19th century homes, the oldest shown in the middle here, dates back to 1796. These buildings were built on the site of an old Dutch farm, or bowerie, which was eventually given to Trinity Church after the English takeover of the city. These 2.5-story Federal-style townhouses were originally completed in 1804 (23 Harrison), 1819 (25 Harrison), 1796 (27 Harrison), with the remaining houses completed in 1827-1828 on what was then a section of Washington Street. This latter group was moved two blocks to this location when the houses were restored in beginning in 1960 and converted to a joined residential complex. They were originally built for Jonas Wood, John McComb Jr., Wilson Hunt, Joseph Randoph, William B. Nichols, Sarah R. Lambert, Jacob Ruckle, and Ebenezer Miller. They are uniformly clad in red brick, with short stoops. Some have brownstone English basements, while others have brick. There are a variety of doorways, including round-arched, triangular pediments, and and flat-linteled, and a variety of different roof cornices. Each of the houses has two dormers rising from the peaked roofs above the cornices. The dormers are clad in white wooden siding.

Numbers 315 & 317 were both designed by John Macomb, who was also the architect of City Hall and one of the first native born architects from New York. You’ll notice however that the numbers on the doors don’t match. That is because they were moved a few blocks from their original location. The six townhouses were landmarked by The City of New York on May 13th, 1969.