Rather, it’s the house’s connection with the poet, they contend, that makes the building deserving of official recognition. Its humble character, and perhaps even its less-than-immaculate appearance, reflects who Whitman was: the son of a carpenter with little education who exalted everyday people and places.

It is a potent reminder, some preservationists say, that literary greatness can spring from extremely modest beginnings.

Although his stay here was brief — his family owned the house for only six months in 1855 and possibly stayed there through part of 1856 — it was a literary turning point for Whitman, then in his mid-30s. It was here that he published the first edition of “Leaves of Grass.” It was also here that he received a visit from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who searched him out to pay his respects to an emerging talent.

And of the 30 or so buildings the peripatetic Whitman lived in during his time in New York City, 99 Ryerson is the only one left standing.

“The site he was born in is on Long Island, the site he died in is in Camden, N.J.,” said Brad Vogel, a preservationist who heads the Coalition to Save Walt Whitman’s House. “This is the house most closely related to his work.”

In any other city, Ms. Karbiener said, landmarking Whitman’s onetime home “would be a no-brainer.”