$2.9M townhouse sale sets record in Harlem historic district

Will Marion Cook House marketed as single-or multi-family home, or offices

221 West 138th Street and Norman McHugh
221 West 138th Street and Norman McHugh

The $2.9 million sale of a landmarked limestone townhouse set a price record in the Harlem historic district of Striver’s Row, also known as the St. Nicholas Historic District, according to a spokesperson for Halstead Property.

The 20-foot-wide, 3,900-square-foot Will Marion Cook House at 221 West 138th Street is three stories and currently holds two units. The undisclosed seller sought to use the space as a private art gallery.

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Halstead Property brokers Norman McHugh and Ivonne Velasquez, who had the listing, marketed it as a building that could be converted into a private single-family home, a multi-family home or office space. Developer David King and architecture firm Bruce Price-Clarence S. Luce were behind the construction of the townhouse in 1891.

A townhouse at 237 West 139th Street previously held the record, at $2.4 million, for priciest sale on Striver’s Row. The district, which has designations from both the city Landmarks Preservation Commission and the National Register of Historic Places, runs along West 138th and West 139th streets between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Frederick Douglass boulevards. — Mark Maurer