Harlow Row, also called Brick Row, is a group of brick

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

s in

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. While their address is given as 100-106 Market Street, they are actually located on a short side street referred to as Little Market Street, across from a small park with the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Fountain, on the residential southern fringe of the city's downtown. The row consists of four red brick Second Empire townhouses, three stories in height with the

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

s typical of the

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

. The lower stories are rusticated, with arched doorways. An unusual

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is located on the north end. They were probably built in the 1870s by William Harlow, a former mayor of the city and architect of St. Paul's Church in the city. He may have been inspired by the attempt of another former mayor, Harvey G. Eastman, to build affordable townhouses near the park now named for him, but on a smaller scale. The row appears on city tax maps from the mid-1870s with Harlow identified as owner of the whole property. However, he was not apparently successful, since the same maps list no traceable owner of the houses themselves. In the 1880s, two local lawyers are identified as owners, and later on Charles Robinson, a

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

r. He probably added the tower sometime between 1887 and 1895. Other than some gutting of the south and west

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in 1981 to replace the windows, the houses and their period interior features remain intact. In 1982 the row was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The houses fell into disrepair in the late 20th century, one of many highly visible historic buildings in the city to do so. In 2000

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later org ...

awarded a local nonprofit, Hudson River Housing, $194,000 to rehabilitate the row into eight rental units and four commercial spaces. In 2002 the project was completed at a total cost of almost $2 million, and the company began making the units available for lease.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Second Empire architecture in New York (state) Houses completed in 1874 Houses in Poughkeepsie, New York National Register of Historic Places in Poughkeepsie, New York