  We reanalyse the UV/optical spectrum and optical broad-band data of the
eclipsing binary HV 2274 in the LMC, and derive its distance following the
method given by Guinan et al. (1998a,b) of fitting theoretical spectra to the
stars' UV/optical spectrum plus optical photometry. We describe the method in
detail, pointing out the various assumptions that have to be made; moreover, we
discuss the systematic effects of using different sets of model atmospheres and
different sets of optical photometric data. It turns out that different
selections of the photometric data, the set of model atmospheres and the
constraints on the value of the ratio of selective to total extinction in the
$V$-band, result in a 25% range in distances (although some of these models
have a large ${\chi}^2$). For our best choice of these quantities the derived
value for the reddening to HV 2274 is E(B-V) = 0.103 $\pm$ 0.007, and the
de-reddened distance modulus is DM = 18.46 $\pm$ 0.06; the DM to the center of
the LMC is found to be 18.42 $\pm$ 0.07. This is significantly larger than the
DM of 18.30 $\pm$ 0.07 derived by Guinan et al. (1998a).
