The view from the south gate of Gramercy Park, looking north from Gramercy Park South (
East 20th Street), with the statue of
Edwin Booth in the center. The
Gramercy Park Hotel is visible in the left background. (May 2007)
The approximately 2-acre (0.8 ha) park, located in the Gramercy Park Historic District,[8] is one of two private parks in New York City – the other is
Sunnyside Gardens Park in
Queens[9][10][11] – as well as one of only three in
the state;[12] only people residing around the park who pay an annual fee have a key,[13] and the public is not generally allowed in – although the sidewalks of the streets around the park are a popular
jogging, strolling, and dog-walking route.
The neighborhood, associated historic district, and park have generally received positive reviews. Calling it "a Victorian gentleman who has refused to die", Charlotte Devree in The New York Times said that "There is nothing else quite like Gramercy Park in the country."[14] When the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Gramercy Park Historic District in 1966, they quoted from John B. Pine's 1921 book, The Story of Gramercy Park:
The laying out of Gramercy Park represents one of the earliest attempts in this country at 'City Planning'. ... As a park given to the prospective owners of the land surrounding it and held in trust for those who made their homes around it, Gramercy Park is unique in this City, and perhaps in this country, and represents the only neighborhood, with possibly one exception, which has remained comparatively unchanged for eighty years – the Park is one of the City's Landmarks.[8]
Boundaries
Gramercy Park itself is located between
East 20th Street (called Gramercy Park South at the park), and
East 21st Street (called Gramercy Park North), and between Gramercy Park West and Gramercy Park East, two mid-block streets which lie between
Park Avenue South and
Third Avenue.
Irving Place commences at the southern end of Gramercy Park, running to
14th Street, and
Lexington Avenue, a major north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of Manhattan, terminates at the northern end.
The boundaries of the Historic District, set in 1966[8] and extended in 1988,[15] are irregular, lying within the neighborhood, and can be seen in the map in the provided infobox. A proposed extension to the district would include more than 40 additional buildings on Gramercy Park East and
North,
Lexington Avenue,
Park Avenue South,
East 22nd and
East 19th Streets, and Irving Place.[16]
Etymology
The area received its name as an anglicization of Crommessie,[17] which is derived from the
DutchKrom Moerasje, meaning 'little crooked swamp',[18] or Krom Mesje, meaning 'little crooked knife',[19] describing the shape of the swamp, brook and hill on the site. The brook, which later became known as Crommessie Vly,[20] flowed in a 40-foot gully along what is now 21st Street into the
East River at 18th Street. Krom Moerasje/Krom Mesje became corrupted to Crommessie or Crommashie.[17][19][20][21] Mayor
James Duane – for whom the city's Duane Street is named – acquired the site in 1761 from Gerardus Stuyvesant and named it Gramercy Seat.[22][23][24]Gramercy is an archaic English word meaning 'many thanks'.[25]
History
Origin and development
The area which is now Gramercy Park was once in the middle of a
swamp. In 1831
Samuel B. Ruggles, a developer and advocate of open space, proposed the idea for the park due to the northward growth of Manhattan. He bought the property,[5] 22 acres of what was then a farm called "Gramercy Farm", from the heirs of James Duane, son of the former mayor, father of
James Chatham Duane, and a descendant of
Peter Stuyvesant. Ruggles then deeded the land on December 17, 1832 to five trustees, who pledge to hold 42 lots in trust to be used as parkland.[26] To develop the property, Ruggles spent $180,000 to landscape it, draining the swamp and causing about a million horsecart loads of earth to be moved.[18][20] He then laid out "Gramercy Square", deeding possession of the square to the owners of the 66 parcels of land he had plotted to surround it, and sought tax-exempt status for the park, which the city's
Board of Aldermen granted in 1832. It was the second private square created in the city, after
Hudson Square, also known as
St. John's Park, which was laid out by the parish of
Trinity Church.[8] Numbering of the lots began at No. 1 on the northwest corner, on Gramercy Park West, and continued counter-clockwise: south down Gramercy Park West, then west to east along Gramercy Park South (East 20th Street), north up Gramercy Park East, and finally east to west along Gramercy Park North (East 21st Street).[8]
As part of his overall plan for the square, Ruggles received permission on January 28, 1833 from the Board of Alderman to open up Fourth Avenue, which had been limited to use by trains, to vehicular traffic.[27] He also brought about the creation by the state legislature of
Lexington Avenue and
Irving Place,[note 3] two new north-south roads laid out between Third and Fourth Avenues and feeding into his development at the top and bottom of the park.[20] The new streets reduced the number of lots around the park from 66 to 60.[28]
Gramercy Park was enclosed by a fence in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s,[20][29] due to the
Panic of 1837.[30] In one regard this was fortunate, since the opening of the
Croton Aqueduct in 1842 allowed new townhouses to be constructed with indoor plumbing.[28]
The first formal meeting of the park's trustees took place in 1844 at 17 Union Square (West), the mansion of James W. Gerard, which is no longer extant, having been demolished in 1938.[31] By that time, landscaping had already begun with the hiring of James Virtue in 1838, who planted
privet inside the fence as a border; by 1839 pathways had been laid out and trees and shrubs planted.[32] Major planting also took place in 1844[8] – the same year the park's gates were first locked[31] – followed by additional landscaping by Brinley & Holbrook in 1916. These plantings had the effect of softening the parks' prim formal design.[32]
Later 19th century events
In 1863, in an unprecedented gesture, Gramercy Park was opened to
Union soldiers involved in putting down the violent
Draft riots which broke out in New York, after
conscription was introduced for the
Civil War.[18] Gramercy Park itself had been protected with
howitzers by troops from the Eighth Regiment Artillery, while the 152nd New York Volunteers encamped in nearby
Stuyvesant Square.[20]
At No. 34 and No. 36 Gramercy Park (East) are two of New York's first apartment buildings, designed in 1883 and 1905.[33] In addition, No. 34 is the oldest existing co-operative apartment building in the city.[34] Elsewhere in the neighborhood, nineteenth century
brownstones and
carriage houses abound, though the 1920s brought the onset of tenant apartments and skyscrapers to the area.
In 1890 an attempt was made to run a
cable car through the park to connect Irving Place to Lexington Avenue.[8] The bill passed the
New York State Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor
David B. Hill.[21] Twenty-two years later, in 1912, another proposal would have connected Irving Place and Lexington Avenue, bisecting the park, but was defeated through the efforts of the Gramercy Park Association, now called Gramercy Neighborhood Associates.[21][35]
In the late 19th century, numerous charitable institutions influential in setting social policy were located on 23rd Street, and some, such as the
Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, still remain in the area.
Calvary Church on Gramercy Park North has a food pantry that opens its doors once a week for one hour, and the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park South served as an
Underground Railroad station before the
Civil War, when the building was a
Quaker meeting house, established in 1859.[33]
20th and 21st centuries
The Hotel Irving, at 26 Gramercy Park South, was constructed c.1903.[36] Among its guests was a young
Preston Sturges, who stayed there in 1914 while his mother lived with
Isadora Duncan at the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel. A townhouse on the north side of the Park was provided for Duncan's dancing school, and their studio was nearby on the northeast corner of Park Avenue South (then Fourth Avenue) and
23rd Street.[37] The Hotel Irving was converted to a co-op in 1986.[38]
In the center of the park is a statue of one of the area's most famous residents,
Edwin Booth, which was dedicated on November 13, 1918.[39][40][41] Booth was one of the great Shakespearean actors of 19th Century America, as well as the brother of
John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of
Abraham Lincoln. The mansion at No. 16 Gramercy Park (South) was purchased by Booth and renovated by
Stanford White at his request to be the home of the
Players' Club, which Booth founded. He turned over the deed to the building on New Year's Eve 1888.[33][40] Next door at No. 15 Gramercy Park (South) is the
National Arts Club, established in 1884 in a
Victorian Gothic mansion which was originally home to the New York Governor and 1876 Presidential Candidate,
Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden had steel doors and an escape tunnel to East 19th Street to protect himself from the sometimes violent politics of the day.[33]
On September 20, 1966, a part of the Gramercy Park neighborhood was designated an historic district,[8] the boundaries of which were extended on July 12, 1988.[15] The district was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[4] A proposed extension of the district would include nearby buildings such as the
Manhattan Trade School for Girls, now the
School of the Future, and the Children's Court and Family Court buildings, now part of
Baruch College, all on East 22nd Street.[16]
In 1983, Fantasy Fountain, a 4.5 stone (63 lb; 29 kg) bronze sculpture by
Greg Wyatt was installed in the park.[42]
In 2012, 18 Gramercy Park South – formerly the
Salvation Army's Parkside Evangeline Residence for Women and then a facility of the
School of Visual Arts – was sold to
Eyal Ofer's Global Holdings and the Zeckendorf brothers for $60 million for conversion into condominium apartments by
Robert A. M. Stern, including a $42 million penthouse duplex.[44] The 17-story building is the tallest around the park and dates from 1927.[31]
Ownership and access to the park
Since December 31, 1831, Gramercy Park has been held in common by the owners of the 39 surrounding structures.[45] Two keys are allocated to each of the original lots surrounding the park, and the owners may buy keys for a fee, which was originally $10 per key, but as of 2008[update] was $350, with a $1,000 fee for lost keys,[7][45][46] which rises to $2,000 for a second instance.[31] The
Medeco locks are changed annually,[32] and any property that does not pay the annual assessment of $7,500 per lot has its key privileges revoked;[31] additionally, the keys are very hard to duplicate.[45] As of 2012[update], there were 383 keys in circulation, each individually numbered and coded.[31]
Members of
Players Club and the
National Arts Club as well as guests of the
Gramercy Park Hotel,[47] which has 12 keys,[32] have access, as does Calvary Church and the Brotherhood Synagogue; hotel guests are escorted to the park and picked up later by hotel staff.[31] In addition, the owners of the luxury condominium apartments at 57
Irving Place, completed in 2012, can obtain key access to the park by becoming members of the Players Club, even though the building is located several blocks from the park.[48]
At one time, the park was open to the public on an annual Gramercy Day whose date changed each year but was often the first Saturday in May. In 2007, the trustees announced that the park would no longer be open for Gramercy Day because it "had turned into a street fair".[49] The park, however, continues to be open to the public on Christmas Eve.[50] Visitors to the park may not drink alcohol, smoke, ride a bicycle, walk a dog, play ball or
Frisbee, or feed the birds and squirrels.[31]
In 2001, Aldon James of the National Arts Club that adjoins the park brought about 40 children, mostly minorities, into the park from the nearby
Washington Irving High School on
Irving Place. The trustee at the time, Sharen Benenson, called police alleging that the children were trespassing.[49] The police refused to take action. Later, a suit was filed against the park's administration in Federal Court.[51][52][53] The suit was settled out of court in 2003. Most of the children settled for $36,000 each, while one received $50,000.[7][54]
In December 2014, it was revealed in The New York Times that 360-degree panoramic pictures of the interior of the park – taken using Photo Sphere, a Google app within
Google Street View, by Shawn Christopher from the
Pittsburgh area – had been posted to
Google Maps. Christopher got access to the park by renting a room through the
Airbnb service and using the key to the park which came with the room. The Gramercy Park Block Association – which did not know about the photographs until informed by a Times reporter – did not give Christopher permission to shoot in the park, and he was unaware that photography was generally forbidden.[55][56]
Demographics
Based on data from the
2010 United States Census, the population of Gramercy Park was 27,988, an increase of 1,804 (6.9%) from the 26,184 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 171.71 acres (69.49 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 163.0 inhabitants per acre (104,300/sq mi; 40,300/km2).[3] The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 73.7% (20,623)
White, 3.3% (923)
African American, 0.1% (19)
Native American, 13.4% (3,740)
Asian, 0.0% (10)
Pacific Islander, 0.3% (77) from
other races, and 2.0% (573) from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 7.2% (2,023) of the population.[57]
Surrounding neighborhood
The neighborhood, which is called either "Gramercy Park" or "Gramercy", is generally considered to be a quiet and safe area.[13] While real estate in Manhattan is rarely stable, the apartments in the neighborhood around Gramercy Park have experienced little turmoil. East 19th Street between Third Avenue and Irving has been called "Block Beautiful" for its wide array of architecture and pristine aesthetic.
Townhouses with generous backyards and smaller apartments alike coincide in a collage of architecture in Gramercy Park. The largest private house in the neighborhood, a 42-room mansion on Gramercy Park South, was on sale for $7 million in 1993.[13]
The Gramercy Park neighborhood is located in the part of Manhattan where the
bedrockManhattan schist is located deeper underground than it is above
29th Street and below
Canal Street, and as a result, and under the influence of
zoning laws, the tallest buildings in the area top out at around 20 stories, and older buildings of 3–6 floors are numerous, especially on the side streets, but even on the avenues.[citation needed]
The quiet streets perpendicular to Irving Place have maintained their status as fashionable residential blocks reminiscent of London's
West End. In 1912, a multiple dwelling planned specifically for bachelors appeared at 52 Irving Place. A
Colonial Revival style structure with suites of rooms that lacked kitchen facilities was one of a small group of New York apartment houses planned for single men in the early years of the 20th century.
Gramercy Park Hotel was originally designed by Robert T. Lyons and built by
Bing & Bing in 1925, replacing a row of townhouses. It was managed for many years by hotelier Herbert Weissberg, and in 2006 underwent a massive makeover by
Ian Schrager, who in 2010 sold his interests and is no longer associated with the hotel. Interiors were designed by artist and filmmaker
Julian Schnabel. The Hotel has views of Gramercy Park, and guests have access to the hotel's 12 keys to the park during their stay. Dining venues include the Rose Bar and Jade Bar, and rooftop Gramercy Terrace restaurant; Danny Meyer's Maialino is also in the Hotel.[citation needed]
The Hotel was the subject of a 2008 documentary film, Hotel Gramercy Park.[58]
An assortment of restaurants, bars, and establishments line Irving Place, the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood south of the park.
Pete's Tavern, New York's oldest surviving saloon, and where O. Henry is often erroneously said to have written The Gift of the Magi,[59] survived Prohibition disguised as a flower shop.
Irving Plaza, at East 15th Street and Irving, hosts numerous concerts for both well-known and indie bands and draws a crowd almost every night. There are also a number of clinics and official city buildings on Irving Place.[citation needed]
P.S. 40, the
Augustus Saint-Gaudens School, serving grades Pre-K to 5, is the only general public elementary school in the neighborhood; it is located on East 20th Street between First and Second Avenues, near the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Playground, Peter's Field, and the park at
Stuyvesant Square.[61] The building also houses a middle school named after
Jonas Salk: the
Salk School of Science, serving grades 6–8.[62] M.S. 104 the Simon Baruch Middle School, which also serves grades 6–8, is located just east of, P.S. 40 and Salk, on the same block but across the street.[63] Nearby, on East 23rd Street, is the American Sign Language and English School, a public elementary and middle school which provides
American Sign Language immersion education for deaf and hearing children.[64] The ASL and English School building also hosts other public school programs.
Also located in the neighborhood is The Epiphany School, a Catholic elementary school on 22nd Street at Second Avenue. Founded in 1885 for religious instruction in the parish of the Epiphany, the school has been a landmark – gutted and rebuilt – in the neighborhood for generations.[65] At 20th Street and Second Avenue is a new building for the
Learning Spring School, a private school for high-functioning
autistic children[66] funded by the
Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.[67] The building houses an elementary and middle school, grades K-8.[68]
The
École Internationale de New York, a French international school, is primarily located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood,[69] partly at
111 East 22nd Street between
Park and
Lexington Avenues, where the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades and the Middle School are sited; and partly in the "Renwick Gem" of
Calvary Church at 277 Park Avenue, where the 4th and 5th grades are located. There is also a
preschool at 206 Fifth Avenue between West
25th and
26th Streets in the
NoMad neighborhood.[70]
Higher education
The buildings of
Baruch College of the
City University of New York (CUNY) are located in the neighborhood or nearby. Baruch College's Lawrence and Eris Field Building is located at the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street in Gramercy.[71] The facilities of
The School of Visual Arts are located on East 23rd Street and elsewhere. SVA students are housed in Gramercy Park Women's Residence, George Washington Hotel and the New Residence.[72] In addition,
New York University's Gramercy Green dormitory is located in Gramercy.[73][74]
Library
The
New York Public Library (NYPL)'s Epiphany branch is located at 228 East 23rd Street. The Epiphany branch opened in 1887 and moved to its current structure, a two-story
Carnegie library, in 1907. It was renovated from 1982 to 1984.[75]
Police, crime and fire
Gramercy, along with Stuyvesant Town and Madison Square, is patrolled by the 13th Precinct of the
NYPD, located at 230 East 21st Street.[76] The 13th Precinct and neighboring 17th Precinct ranked 57th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The high per-capita crime rate is attributed to the precincts' high number of property crimes.[77]
The 13th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 80.7% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 2 murders, 18 rapes, 152 robberies, 174 felony assaults, 195 burglaries, 1,376 grand larcenies, and 37 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[78]
Gramercy is served by two
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations.[79] Engine Company 5 is located at 340 East 14th Street[80] while Engine Company 14 is located at 14 East 18th Street.[81]
No. 3&4 –
James Harper – an original resident, 1847–1869,[18]Mayor of New York from 1844 to 1845 and one of the founders of the
Harper publishing firm;[21][85] the two iron lamps outside No. 4 were placed there by the city in Harper's honor: the custom was that mayor's residences were so distinguished so that he would be available for nighttime emergencies[21]
No. 5 –
Vincent Astor – businessman, philanthropist, member of the Astor family[85]
Oscar Wilde took rooms at 47 Irving Place for a while in 1882, some ten years before his future literary agent in America,
Elisabeth Marbury set up home next door at 49 Irving Place with interior designer
Elsie de Wolfe. De Wolfe and Marbury were said to be the most fashionable lesbian couple of Victorian New York.
1892: John Seymour Wood's Gramercy Park: A Story of New York may be one of the first literary works set in the area
1945: In
E. B. White's children's book Stuart Little, the Little family live at "22 Gramercy Park",[100] which White describes as "[A] pleasant place near a park in New York City." White also wrote a poem called "Gramercy Park", which was published in The New Yorker, about him and a friend climbing over the fence into the park.[101]
1949: Henry Noble MacCracken's The Family on Gramercy Park is set in the neighborhood.[102]
1982: In The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe by
Ken Darby, the character
Archie Goodwin states that
Nero Wolfe's townhouse was actually on East 22nd Street in the Gramercy Park district rather than the fictional West 35th street address(es) given in the novels to protect Wolfe's privacy.[104]
1983: Bruce Nicolaysen's The Pirate of Gramercy Park is part of the Novel of New York multi-generation family historical fiction series.
1988: In the book Changes for Samantha, part of the American Girl series, Samantha stays at her Uncle Gardner and Aunt Cordelia's brownstone house in Gramercy Park.
1996: Author Lynn Kurland's heroine Elizabeth Smith falls asleep on a bench in 1996's Gramercy Park only to wake up in 1311 Scotland in A Dance Through Time.
2001: The mystery novel Murder on Gramercy Park by Victoria Thompson is part of the Gaslight Mystery series
2003: Paula Cohen's historical novel Gramercy Park is set in 1894.
2005:The Monsters of Gramercy Park by Danny Leigh is a psychological thriller.
2006: Several key scenes of
Jed Rubenfeld's historical thriller The Interpretation of Murder, which is set in New York in 1909, take place in the park itself and the houses nearby, where one of the book's main protagonists lives.
2010: In his memoir Assholes Finish First,
Tucker Max recounts that he gained access to Gramercy Park to win a bet with a female acquaintance. To satisfy her end of the bet, she was required to give him
fellatio while he was sitting on a bench in the park.
2010: Author
Danielle Steel writes about Gramercy Park in her novel Big Girl.
Films:
Note: Gramercy Park is a
private park, and film companies are not usually allowed to shoot there.
1935: In
Howard Hawks' film Barbary Coast, the character Jim Carmichael, played by
Joel McCrea, is said to live at 14 Gramercy Park, although currently residing in San Francisco, while the protagonist Mary Rutledge (
Miriam Hopkins) played in the park as a child.
1973: In the science fiction film Soylent Green, which is set in New York in 2022, a corrupt New York governor escorts some children into a tent, saying, "This was once called Gramercy Park, boys. Now it's the only tree sanctuary in New York."[106]
1979: In the film The Warriors, one of the fictional gangs featured is the Gramercy Riffs, the biggest gang in New York.[107]
1993: The exterior of the park can be seen in the
Woody Allen film Manhattan Murder Mystery. The characters in the film comment on the beauty of the park from a wine tasting filmed in the National Arts Club. Later in the film
Diane Keaton and
Alan Alda walk into the street directly in front of the park as they try to track a bus route.
1999: In the film Notting Hill, a famous actress, played by
Julia Roberts, is shown starring in a film called Gramercy Park, which was also the name of the production company for Notting Hill.
2000:Jazz fusion/rock duo
Steely Dan mentioned the park in "
Janie Runaway", from its album Two Against Nature in the lyrics "Down in Tampa the future looked desperate and dark / Now you're the wonder waif of Gramercy Park".
2001: Dutch
jazz pianist
Michiel Borstlap owns a record label called "Gramercy Park" and he also composed a tune with the same name.
2020: American singer-songwriter
Alicia Keys's album Alicia contains a song titled "Gramercy Park".[112]
Television:
1994: In the animated series Gargoyles, the villainous
Demona resides in a townhouse located in Gramercy Park.[113]
2005 In the Law & Order episode, "Dining Out", the body of the murder victim is found in Gramercy Park.
2017 In the
fourth season of the TV series Broad City, Abbi and Ilana save a man who is choking by doing the Heimlich maneuver through the park gate, but he still refuses to let them into the park.
2019 In the Dimension 20 season The Unsleeping City, The Gramercy Occult Society is based near the park.
2023 In
And Just like That..., Carrie Bradshaw sells her former apartment and moves into one in Gramercy Park on Gramercy Park West at the end of Season 2.[115]
Stage:
1994–99:Toni Ann Johnson's play Gramercy Park is Closed to the Public – which centers on the life of an upper middle class woman of mixed race and her romantic relationship with a white policeman – was produced in the summer of 1994 by The Fountainhead Theatre Company in Los Angeles at The Hudson Theatre.[116] It was also produced by the New York Stage and Film Company in Summer 1999 at
Vassar College in
Poughkeepsie, New York.[117]
^Neighborhoods in New York City do not have official status, and their boundaries are not specifically set by the city. (There are a number of
Community Boards, whose boundaries are officially set, but these are fairly large and generally contain a number of neighborhoods, and the
neighborhood mapArchived September 15, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine issued by the Department of City Planning only shows the largest ones.)
^Ruggles named Irving Place after
Washington Irving, but Irving never lived there, although he frequently visited a nephew who lived nearby.
^
abKugel, Seth (July 23, 2006).
"The Ultimate Neighborhood Park". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2019. A visit to the Gramercy Park neighborhood, on the East Side of Manhattan, can be frustrating ... But the easily walkable neighborhood deserves a tour ...
^Konigsberg, Eric (June 19, 2008).
"The Guardian of Gramercy Park". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2019. Gramercy is one of two private parks in New York City (the other, in Queens, is Sunnyside Gardens Park) and a key is required not only to enter, but to leave through a gate in its wraparound wrought-iron fence.
^Wilkinson, Christina (September 12, 2005).
"Sunnyside, Queens". Forgotten New York. Retrieved February 11, 2019. Sunnyside Gardens Park is one of only two private residential parks in the city. The other is Gramercy Park in Manhattan, which is much more elite and whose owners would probably scoff at the idea of extending access to outsiders.
^Lisi, Michael (December 5, 2010).
"Washington Park, Troy". Times Union. Hearst Corporation. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
^
abcdeCohen, Joyce (August 29, 1999).
"If You're Thinking of Living In/Gramercy Park; A Long Sense of History, And a Private Park". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2019. Most distinctive of all is that Gramercy Park itself is the only private park in the city. Landscaped and leafy, the park defines the neighborhood, which runs from 14th to 23d streets and Park Avenue South to Third Avenue. The gates are locked for all but one afternoon a year, usually the first Saturday in May, when the park is open to the public.
^Devree, Charlotte (December 8, 1957).
"Private Life of a Park". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2019. More or less at the center of New York's current binge of tearing down the old and putting up the new, a small sector successfully resists, much like a Victorian gentleman who has refused to die.
^
abNevius, Michelle & Nevius, James (2009), Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City, New York:
Free Press,
ISBN141658997X, p.69
^Staff.
"Gramercy Park", The New York Times, July 3, 1921. Accessed March 28, 2017. Editorial on the 90th anniversary of the dedication of Gramercy Park.
^Pitt, David E.
"2 Dead and 19 Hurt in Blast Of a Submerged Steam Pipe", The New York Times, August 20, 1989. Accessed March 28, 2017. "A 24-inch underground steam pipe exploded with a thunderous roar in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan yesterday evening, killing two people and injuring 19 others, the police said."
^Gramercy Park,
Gramercy Park Hotel. Accessed March 28, 2017. "Guests are allowed access into the tranquil park and to step into a New York City of a quieter, gentler time."
^Kleinfeld, N. R.
"Federal Lawsuit Charges Racial Exclusion at Gated Gramercy Park", The New York Times, January 18, 2001. Accessed March 28, 2017. "According to the suit, filed yesterday in Federal District Court two groups of largely minority schoolchildren who were invited to use the park on separate occasions last year by the National Arts Club, an institution that abuts the park and is entitled to keys, were ordered to leave by the chairwoman of the Gramercy Park Trust, which has sovereignty over the park."
^Cooper, Michael.
"Skeptic Takes Sword To Bars' Myths", The New York Times, September 29, 1996. Accessed March 28, 2017. "Pete's Tavern, and guidebooks, have long claimed that O. Henry wrote his most famous story, Gift of the Magi, in its first booth. In fact William Sidney Porter, better known as O. Henry, did live across Irving Place from the saloon, then called Healey's Tavern. And he did drink there frequently. But he apparently did not write his most famous plot twist there."
^
abHalberg, Morgan.
"The Greatest Private House in New York", The New York Observer, March 9, 2016. Accessed December 23, 2023. "'I've always liked big houses," Dr. Henry Jarecki, owner of the imposing mansion at 19 Gramercy Park South, told the Observer recently.... Mr. Jarecki bid on the home each time it traded owners post-Sonnenberg, but it still languished on the market for 12 years, until fashion designer Richard Tyler and his wife, Lisa Trafficante, paid $3.5 million for the keys in 1995."
^Diamond, Jason.
"Edith Wharton by Design", Paris Review, January 24, 2013. Accessed March 28, 2017. "That night I noticed the red plaque on a doorway next to a Starbucks at 14 W. Twenty-Third Street that read, 'This was the childhood home of Edith Jones Wharton, one of America's most important authors.'"
^Staff.
"Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, Ex‐Vassar President, 89, Dies", The New York Times, May 8, 1970. Accessed March 28, 2017. "While still president of Vassar, Dr. MacCracken decided that upon retirement he would write books, not in his own field, which was English literature, but in another, preferably history. The first of these was The Family on Gramercy Park, reminiscences of himself as a 12‐year‐old in that neighborhood."
^"It's Like This, Cat",
University of Texas at Arlington, February 24, 2011. Accessed March 28, 2017. "Gramercy Park to this day is an oasis of privilege, but as captured in a 1963 children's book it seems almost surreally so."
^Darby, Ken (1983) The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe New York: Little, Brown. p.8.
ISBN0316172804
^Rathe, Adam.
"Luxe Be A Ladt", The Brooklyn Paper, January 5, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2020. "The Luxe, while witty and catty and all of the delicious things that a YA book read by adults should be, is above all smart and interesting. Upon meeting the Hollands, readers learn that their grand digs on Gramercy Park, however nice they are, don't measure up to the mansions that the nouveau riche are building in the farmland along Fifth Avenue in the 50s."
^Foundas, Scott.
"Film Review: That Awkward Moment", Variety, January 28, 2014. Accessed July 18, 2016. "Gormican begins and ends That Awkward Moment with Efron's Jason sitting alone and forlorn on a bench in Gramercy Park on a chilly winter's night, and in between flashes back to show us how he got there."
^Mihaila, Georgie (August 10, 2022).
"The chic apartments in 'Uncoupled' and where to find them in real life". Fancy Pants Homes. Retrieved August 18, 2022. If you've fallen for the apartment Michael and Colin share on Uncoupled, you're not alone. The quintessential New York apartment with its picture windows, perfectly appointed interiors, and prewar details, Michael's pad is a million-dollar dream come true. Michael's apartment is set at 44 Gramercy Park North, one of the landmark buildings on Gramercy Park. Dating back to 1929, the prewar building consists of 75 upscale apartments spread across 15 floors. Designed by Schwartz and Gross, a leading architectural firm that designed numerous apartment buildings in the city during the first half of the 20th century, the Gramercy Park landmark features Neo-Gothic details that include a limestone arch and casement windows, with terra-cotta panels and brickwork. The average price in the building is $1,327/square foot, according to CityRealty.
^Kang, Inkoo.
"The Failed Real-Estate Porn of And Just Like That . . .", The New Yorker, August 23, 2023. Accessed September 4, 2023. "But, in And Just Like That..., when Carrie rekindles her relationship with another Sex and the City-era paramour, Aidan, two decades after their broken engagement, he refuses to set foot in the unit where she confessed to her affair with Big. And so she calls up her friend and real-estate agent, Seema, to purchase a four-bedroom mansion in Gramercy Park—the kind of house that could accommodate a life with Aidan and his sons, should the boys visit one day."