Built between 1804 and 1828, the eight townhouses on the block of Harrison St immediately west of Greenwich St constitute the largest collection of Federal architecture left in NYC. Yet only the buildings at 31 and 33 Harrison St remain where they were originally constructed. The other six once stood two blocks away, on a stretch of Washington St that no longer exists.
In the early 1970s, that site was home to the Washington Market, a wholesale fruit and vegetable shopping complex. But development of the waterfront – which resulted in the construction of the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the Soviet-style concrete apartment complex that now looms over the townhouses – meant the market had to move uptown and the historic row of houses had to be relocated.
