Brian Lairn on WNYC, now the latest installment in our Pledge Drive tour of lesser known but still fascinating pieces of New York's history.

Our guide is professional guide, Tommy Silk, who has a new book out called Hidden Landmarks of New York,

a tour of the city's most overlooked buildings.

You might know him from his very popular Instagram account, Landmarks of New York.

Hello again, Tommy Silk.

Hey, Brian.

Thanks for having me again.

So we've talked in this series about distinctive private houses and commercial spaces,

all the very real histories of sometimes enhanced with a bit of legend.

But today we thought we would visit some places with invented histories, buildings

famous for the fictional characters who occupy them in the

imaginations of the writers and filmmakers who use them in their works.

You write about this in your book.

Maybe one of the most charming of those creations is Stuart Little, the Little Talking

Mouse in E.B. White's children's book.

Tell us about that house on Gramercy Park.

Yeah, so this house is on Gramercy Park West. It's notable because it has this beautiful

cast iron front porch. And it seems appropriate that Stuart Little would have been there because

the original inhabitant of the home was a gentleman by the name of James Harper. Now,

Harper would eventually go on to become the mayor of New York, but he also ran a publishing company, which would eventually become Harper Collins publishing. And his house is also notable because before Gracie Mansion existed as a place for the mayor to live, the mayor got a very special significance of basically to show that you were mayor.

You got to have two gas lamps outside your front porch.

And if you go visit there, Harper's House has these two gas lamps.

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