Jacob Ruckle House
31 Harrison Street | Tribeca | built 1827
Open on the map4 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1636
Dutch director grants Annetje Jans the farm that includes this block
In 1636 Director General Van Twiller granted a sixty-two-acre farm between present Chambers and Canal Streets to Annetje Jans and her first husband. After she married the minister Dominie Bogardus it became known as the Dominie's Bowery. It later passed through English hands as the Duke's, King's and Queen's Farm before Queen Anne gave it to Trinity Church in 1705.
“The Dutch Director General, Van Twiller, had granted it in 1636 to her and her first husband, who were both Scandinavian born.”
- 1827
Jacob Ruckle builds the house at 31 Harrison Street
Jacob Ruckle had the house at 31 Harrison Street built in 1827, the same year as its twin neighbors at Nos. 29 and 33. The landmark report says the original owners of this group were mostly master craftsmen or prosperous businessmen who already held their lots. Their houses stood close to the Hudson River shore.
“31 Harrison Street was built in 1827 for Jacob Ruckle.”
- 1900
Washington Market spreads north and the house becomes a warehouse
As the Washington Market grew northward from its site to the south, the neighborhood turned entirely commercial by the end of the nineteenth century. Only a handful of the original town houses were left. No. 31 was converted to warehouse use, which stripped its ground-floor details but left the upper stories largely intact.
“…by the end of the nineteenth century, this entire area was wholly commercial, and there were no more than a handful of the original town houses left.”
- 1975
The restored Harrison Street houses go on sale with unfinished interiors
The Washington Market renewal project threatened the area with demolition in the mid-1970s, and the city instead funded the restoration of nine Federal houses, including No. 31. Architects Oppenheimer, Brady & Vogelstein rebuilt the lost facades. The houses were then offered with unfinished interiors at prices from $35,000 to $75,000, and they found new owners quickly.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- Ebenezer Miller House33 Harrison Street | 4 entries
- Sarah R. Lambert House29 Harrison Street | 4 entries
- 315 Washington Street House27A Harrison Street | 5 entries
- Wilson Hunt House37 Harrison Street | 4 entries
- Joseph Randolph House39 Harrison Street | 5 entries
- John McComb Jr. House27 Harrison Street | 6 entries