Landmarked Washington Heights Building Bought For $26.7M: Report

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — If one did have the ability to travel back in time, the building at 555 Edgecombe Ave. would be near the top of Washington Heights destinations.

Depending on the year you picked, you could walk the halls and bump into world heavyweight champion Joe Louis, pass a door and hear the music of legendary jazz pianist Count Basie, or find actor, musician, and activist Paul Robeson standing in the lobby.

It is an uptown property steeped with history.

The 127-unit residential building near West 160th Street was just bought by the Harkham family for $26.7 million, reported The Real Deal.

Notably, it is 59 percent less than the price tag — $65 million — initially asked for by the previous owners of the building in 2017.

“Everything about the building is like being transported into another era,” Aron Harkham, the son of Beverly Hills hotelier Efrem Harkham, told The Real Deal.

The new owners plan to restore the building's original architectural detail and "remove a layer of material purposefully blocking the skylight, and restore neo-classical friezes that have chipped and dulled," Harkham told the publication.

The building is also on the National Register of Historic Places and a designated New York City landmark.

The Edgecombe Avenue street that the building is on has been co-named "Paul Robeson Boulevard" and "Count Basie Place."

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark after Robeson's death in 1976.