William B. Nichols House
41 Harrison Street | Tribeca | built 1828
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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.
- 1828
William B. Nichols builds one of three matching houses at 331 Washington Street
Nichols built the house in 1828, the same year as its twin neighbors at 327 and 329 Washington Street, after the Rhinelander estate sold the land. By the end of the nineteenth century the nearby Washington Market had spread north until the whole area was commercial, leaving only a handful of the old town houses. This one lost its ground-floor details when it became a warehouse.
“331 Washington Street was built in 1828 as were the two matching houses at Nos. 327 and 329 Washington Street.”
- 1828
This house keeps the only hand-carved cornice fascia among three neighboring Federal houses
Of the three adjoining houses facing Washington Street, the Landmarks Commission found that only No. 331 kept its carved wooden cornice fascia, decorated with egg-and-dart molding. Its arched dormers and paneled stone lintels over the upper windows are also unusually well preserved. Paneled blocks at the ends of the party walls hide the coping that served as a firebreak.
“…only this one retains its original, hand-carved fascia board with egg and dart molding at the cornice…”
- 1969
The Landmarks Commission designates the 331 Washington Street House on May 13, 1969
Following a hearing held on December 27, 1966, the commission designated the house as a landmark, describing it as one of six Federal houses forming a group without equal in the city. It called the house a fine early Federal building with refined proportion and harmony. The designation report names William B. Nichols as the original owner.
“This house is one of six Federal houses which compose a group that is unique in New York City.”
- 1969
Urban renewal clears the blocks around the house and the Federal row is moved to Harrison Street
From 1969 to 1973 a wide strip along the Hudson north of Chambers Street was cleared for the Washington Market Urban Renewal Area. The Landmarks Commission chose to save six Federal houses at Harrison and Greenwich Streets and to move three more from a stretch of Washington Street slated for development. This house, designated as 331 Washington Street and now numbered 41 Harrison, belongs to the group that was relocated and restored there.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1979
Paul Goldberger mocks the restored Harrison Street houses as less real than Disneyland
The restoration, done by the firm designing Independence Plaza, left the nine houses looking newly made. In his 1979 book The City Observed, critic Paul Goldberger said that some facades at Disneyland looked more authentic and that the houses made him want to hurry back across Greenwich Street to real old buildings. Ephemeral New York notes that, decades later, the 1970s facades are hard to tell from the originals.
Source: Ephemeral New York
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