The first floor entryway is pictured. Mr. Hatcher, 57 years old, and his wife Arleen Hatcher, 52, own and manage two restaurants called 'Fishers of Men,' in Harlem. They started the business in 2004, inspired by a pastor's sermon about investing in the community. 'I look at it as our ministry,' says Mr. Hatcher, 'our way to give back to the community.' The business employs 10 people.

Mr. Hatcher was born in North Carolina and grew up on Long Island. He started to purchase property in Harlem in the 1980s with his sister and parents, describing it as a 'family adventure.' 'We came up [to Harlem] with the attitude of God, country and the American way,' he says. 'We came up there to put our footprint on the community.' The first floor dining room in the front of the house is pictured.

Shown here, the living room on the first floor. The townhouse is believed to have been built in 1910. Mr. Hatcher met Ms. Hatcher when she was in high school and he was home on a break from college (she also grew up on Long Island). Mr. Hatcher says he got to know Harlem when he was in high school as a cool place to enjoy 'during the disco era.' When they decided to get married, Mr. Hatcher was already living in Harlem and the couple felt the neighborhood was a natural fit.

Here, another view of the living room on the first floor with its copper ceiling. Mr. Hatcher rented the building out until the couple married in 1999. They embarked on a renovation that took about a year. They replaced the home's heating system and installed new plumbing, wiring, insulation, windows and resurfaced the roof. Mr. Hatcher estimates spending approximately $150,000 and says he found some of the material for the renovation, such as the floor tiles, at auctions.

Shown here, the ground-floor kitchen. They are selling because they are building a home in North Carolina and plan to move there. They will continue to run one of their restaurants but hope to hand over the management of the other location to their church.

Shown here, the second-floor stairwell. While the home has many original details, such as the fireplaces, woodwork and pocket doors, the copper ceilings were purchased by Mr. Hatcher from a company in Brooklyn and installed manually. 'I always liked that look,' he says, saying it was a way to restore the home to its original 'grandeur.'

The top floor ceiling has exposed beams and skylights. Mr. Hatcher exposed the ceiling beams during the renovation. Rather than install a drop roof that would connect the walls to the ceiling, he left a gap to give the top floor an airy feel, he says.

A second-floor bathroom with a large tub also features a window cut out to the stairwell in the shape of an "H" for Hatcher. The roughly 3,000-square-foot home has four bedrooms and 2½ baths.

The top floor living area is pictured. Mr. Hatcher says they 'truly enjoy' the whole house. 'One thing we won't miss are the stairs,' he laughs 'That's why the house we built is a ranch house.' He says the family will miss the bustling neighborhood. The property is one block from 125th Street, Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, and is a five-minute walk from the Apollo Theater.

The master bedroom is on the top floor. Mr. Hatcher says he would often watch the foot traffic on 125th street from the home, and recalls the excitement in the neighborhood when Nelson Mandela visited the area in 1990 and President Barack Obama was elected in 2008. 'You could feel it, the vibrations on the windows,' he says. 'We were always right there in the action, that's why I chose that particular block.'

 

A top-floor bathroom is pictured.

A view of the backyard from the townhouse is pictured. The 'H' in the paving of the backyard stands for 'Hatcher' and 'Harlem,' Mr. Hatcher says. Mr. Hatcher says the neighborhood has changed substantially since he first arrived in the 1980s as a result of gentrification and increased business—a change he hopes will generate jobs for locals.

The townhouse at 159 W. 126th St. is on the market for slightly under $2 million. The couple's preference is that the townhouse be purchased as a package with the four neighboring properties at 155, 157, 161 and 163, but they are also available as individual purchases and are listed at either $1.725 million or $1.825 million each. Nakta Thomas of Halstead Property holds the listing for all the properties. First listed in December 2012, the five properties were under contract earlier this year but are now back on the market.