As a successful attorney, Benjamin Harrison purchased a double lot on the west side of North Delaware Street at auction in 1867. In 1874 be began construction of his 16 room Italianate style house, a carriage house, brick drive and landscaping. The cost was $24,818.67. Except for the periods 1881 to 1887, when Harrison was in the US Senate and 1889 to 1893, the presidential years, Benjamin Harrison, his wife Caroline and their two children, Russell and Mary, lived in the Delaware Street home.