27 Harrison Street

John McComb Jr. built this house in 1796 and lived in it himself. It did not stand here then. Its address was 317 Washington Street, a few hundred feet west, and McComb was at the front end of the run that made him the leading architect in New York from 1790 to 1825: City Hall, Castle Clinton, St. John's Chapel. The house is Federal, red brick, with dormers cut into a peaked roof, and it is among the oldest houses left standing in the city.

The Washington Market Urban Renewal Area cleared that side of Washington Street in the late 1960s. The Landmarks Preservation Commission, then only a few years old, had already designated nine Federal houses in the immediate area as individual landmarks in 1969, and negotiated the funding to move three of them, this one included, around the corner to Harrison Street. They joined six of the same period already standing there. The row has held its L shape ever since.

Four floors and about 4,000 square feet sit behind the front door. The parlor floor carries a foyer, a living room with a wood burning fireplace, a dining area, and a 19 by 13 eat-in kitchen that opens to a 25 by 22 rear garden. Two bedrooms and a hall play room occupy the second. The third is given over entirely to one bedroom of 22 by 23 and a bath with a copper soaking tub, both with fireplaces of their own. A lounge, a fourth bedroom and the laundry sit below.

It is offered furnished, on a twelve month minimum, available at the end of September. The house has been rented before at higher numbers. What has not changed is the address, which McComb chose twice, once for the street and once, involuntarily, for this one.

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