Gramercy Park[Sometimes misspelled as Grammercy] () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park,
The approximately park, located in the Gramercy Park Historic District,
The neighborhood is mostly located within Manhattan Community District 6,
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 in 1957 that "There is nothing else quite like Gramercy Park in the country."
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 neighborhood's boundaries are 14th Street to the south, First Avenue to the east, 23rd Street to the north, and Park Avenue South to the west.[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 map issued by the Department of City Planning only shows the largest ones.)]
The boundaries of the Historic District, set in 1966
Etymology
The area received its name as an anglicization of
Crommessie,
[, s.v. "Gramercy Park": "Crommessie, the Dutch for 'crooked little knife', which described the shape of a brook and hill on the site. Judith Stuyvesant, widow of Governor Peter Stuyvesant referred to "Cromessie" in a deed she signed in 1674."] which is derived from the
Dutch language Krom Moerasje, meaning 'little crooked swamp',
[Davis-Krum, Harriet. "Gramercy Park" in p.497] or Krom Mesje, meaning 'little crooked knife',
describing the shape of the swamp, brook and hill on the site. The brook, which later became known as
Crommessie Vly,
[; page 577] 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.
[Ramos, Sandra. Gramercy Park profile , New York. Accessed September 30, 2007.][, pp.191–198] 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.
[Brown, Henry Collins (ed.) (1920) Valentine's Manual of Old New York (No. 4, New Series) New York: Valentine's Manual Inc.][Wilson, Rufus Rockwell (1902) New York: Old & New; Its Story, Streets, and Landmarks New York: Lippincott.][Jackson, Robert McLeod. "'Gramercy' and Crummassie-Vly. (letter), The New York Times, March 1, 1909. Accessed March 28, 2017.] Gramercy is an archaic English word meaning 'many thanks'.
[ "Gramercy", Merriam-Webster.com. Accessed June 26, 2024. "Middle English grand mercy, from Anglo-French grand merci great thanks"]
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,
22 acres of what was then a farm called "Gramercy Farm", from the heirs of James Duane, son of the former mayor, father of Army engineer 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.[Ruggles named Irving Place after Washington Irving, but Irving never lived there, although he frequently visited a nephew who lived nearby.] 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.[, p.69]
Gramercy Park was enclosed by a fence in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s,[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.] due to the Panic of 1837.[; page 612] In one regard this was fortunate, since the opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842 allowed new townhouses to be constructed with indoor plumbing.
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.
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.
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.
At No. 34 and No. 36 Gramercy Park (East) are two of New York's first apartment buildings, designed in 1883 and 1905.[, p.151] Elsewhere in the neighborhood, nineteenth century and 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.
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.
20th and 21st centuries
The Hotel Irving, at 26 Gramercy Park South, was constructed c.1903.
[ New York City Geographic Information System map] 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.
[, p.120] The Hotel Irving was converted to a co-op in 1986.
[ "26 Gramercy Park South" on the Evans & Nye website]
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.[Staff. "Booth Statue Unveiled", The New York Times, November 14, 1918. Accessed March 28, 2017.][Staff. "Booth Statue in Gramercy Park", The New York Times, November 17, 1918. Accessed March 28, 2017.][Staff (1919) "New York Honors Edwin Booth" Theatre Magazine (v.29 n.1)] 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.
On September 20, 1966, a part of the Gramercy Park neighborhood was designated an historic district,[ "Gramercy Park Historic District" at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission "Unlike any other district in New York, Gramercy Park, which was planned as a fashionable residential neighborhood, has always remained a fashionable residential neighborhood."] the boundaries of which were extended on July 12, 1988.[ "Gramercy Park Historic District and Extension" map at nyc.gov] The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[ "Proposed Gramercy Park Historic District Extension" on the Gramercy Neighborhood Associates website]
In 1983, Fantasy Fountain, a bronze sculpture by Greg Wyatt was installed in the park.[Zimmer, Amy. "Missing Gramercy Park Statue Hunted in National Arts Club" , DNAinfo.com, April 20, 2011. Accessed March 28, 2017. "The nymph left the park just in time for the National Arts Club's 85th anniversary celebration, which included a dedication ceremony for another statue, Greg Wyatt's Fantasy Fountain."]
One of the most significant in New York City occurred near Gramercy Park in 1989, killing two Consolidated Edison workers and one bystander, and causing damage of several million dollars to area buildings.[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."]
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.[ 18 Gramercy Park website] The 17-story building is the tallest around the park and dates from 1927.
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.
[Konigsberg (2008)] 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 was $350, with a $1,000 fee for lost keys,
[Ahern, Kaitlin. "Living in Gramercy Park", NYLuxury.com, December 1, 2009. Accessed January 7, 2011.] which rises to $2,000 for a second instance.
The
Medeco locks are changed annually,
and any property that does not pay the annual assessment of $7,500 per lot has its key privileges revoked;
additionally, the keys are very hard to duplicate.
, there were 383 keys in circulation, each individually numbered and coded.
Members of Players Club and the National Arts Club as well as guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel,[ 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."] which has 12 keys,[Arak, Joey. "57 Irving Place Sneaks Into Gramercy Park Through Back Door", Curbed, August 4, 2008. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
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".[Molloy, Joanna. "Gramercy Park Siege: Manhattan's only private oasis is site of battle to make it open to the public", New York Daily News, April 20, 2010. Accessed March 28, 2017.] The park, however, continues to be open to the public on Christmas Eve.[Staff. "Gramercy Park no longer open first Saturday in May", NewYorkOlogy, May 2, 2007. Accessed March 28, 2017.] 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.
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.[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."][Smith, Greg B. "Kids Chased From Gramercy Park, Bias Suit Says", New York Daily News, January 18, 2001. Accessed March 28, 2017.][Rish, George and Molloy, Joanna with Anderson, Kasia and Rubin, Lauren. "Madonna 'Grabs' London Spotlight", New York Daily News, May 15, 2002. Accessed March 28, 2017.] The suit was settled out of court in 2003. Most of the children settled for $36,000 each, while one received $50,000.[Fried, Joseph. "Following Up; Gramercy Park Bias Suit Approaches a Settlement", The New York Times, September 28, 2003. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
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.[Chaban, Matt A. V. "Peek in Gramercy Park, Key No Longer Required", The New York Times, December 1, 2014. Accessed March 28, 2017.][Chaban, Matt A. V. "Times Insider: Story Behind the Story: Sneaking a Peek at a Protected Gramercy Park View". The New York Times, December 4, 2014. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
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 , the neighborhood had a population density of .
[ Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.] 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.
[ Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.]
Surrounding neighborhood
The neighborhood, which is called either "Gramercy Park" or "Gramercy", is generally considered to be a quiet and safe area.
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.
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.
The Gramercy Park neighborhood is located in the part of Manhattan where the bedrock Manhattan 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.
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
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.
The Hotel was the subject of a 2008 documentary film, Hotel Gramercy Park.[Kung, Michelle (December 7, 2009) "'Hotel Gramercy Park' Film Traces the Famous Hotel's Highs, Lows" The Wall Street Journal]
Irving Place
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,[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."] 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.
Education
Schools
Two public high schools are located in the area: Washington Irving High School on Irving Place, and the School of the Future on 22nd Street at Lexington Avenue, which is also a middle school.
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.[ Home Page, PS 347 The ASL and English Lower School. Accessed March 28, 2017.] 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.[ Epiphany School official website] At 20th Street and Second Avenue is a new building for the Learning Spring School, a private school for high-functioning autism children[ LearningSpring School website ] funded by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.[ SFARI website] The building houses an elementary and middle school, grades K-8.[ "Full Board Meeting Minutes", Manhattan Community Board 6, February 11, 2009. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
The École Internationale de New York, a French international school, is primarily located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood,[Burton, Monica (2011) "A Language en Vogue." Shoe Leather. Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University. p.1 ( Archive). Accessed May 1, 2015.] 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.[ École International de New York website]
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.
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.
In addition, New York University's Gramercy Green dormitory is located in Gramercy.
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.
Police and crime
Gramercy, along with Stuyvesant Town and Madison Square, is patrolled by the 13th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 230 East 21st Street.
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.
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.
Fire safety and hospitals
Gramercy is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations.
Engine Company 5 is located at 340 East 14th Street
while Engine Company 14 is located at 14 East 18th Street.
Nearby is the Hospital for Joint Diseases, part of the NYU Medical Center, and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on 14th Street. Cabrini Medical Center, on East 19th and 20th Streets, closed down in 2008, but the buildings were purchased by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2010, for use as a cancer outpatient facility.[Staff. "Cabrini purchase gets green light; Helmsley Middletown hotel to close", Crain's New York Business, February 7, 2010. Accessed March 28, 2017.] In addition, Beth Israel Medical Center in Stuyvesant Town operated until 2025.
Post office and ZIP Codes
Gramercy is located in two
. The area south of 20th Street is located in 10003, while the area north of 20th Street is located in 10010.
The United States Postal Service operates the Madison Square Station post office at 149 East 23rd Street.
Notable residents
Around the park
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No. 1 – Amos Pinchot – brother of former Governor of Pennsylvania
[, pp.22–23]
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No. 1 – Valentine Mott – an original resident, chief medical officer of the Union Army and founder of Bellevue Hospital and NYU Medical School
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No. 2 – James W. Pinchot – businessman and father of Gifford Pinchot, who was the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service
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No. 3&4 – James Harper – an original resident, 1847–1869,
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No. 5 – Vincent Astor – businessman, philanthropist, member of the Astor family
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No. 7 – Julia Roberts – American actress
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No. 10 – Henrietta B. Haines – novelist
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No. 11 – Robert Henri – American painter
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No. 11 – Samuel L. M. Barlow II – composer, patron of the arts
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No. 15 – Samuel J. Tilden – whose house, a National Historic Landmark, is now the National Arts Club
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No. 16 – Edwin Booth – famed Shakespearean actor, founded The Players
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No. 19 – Stuyvesant Fish – a leader of New York society (1887)
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No. 19 – Edward Sheldon – playwright
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No. 19 – William C. Bullitt – diplomat, journalist and novelist
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No. 19 – Benjamin Sonnenberg – publicist
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No. 19 – Richard Tyler – designer
[Halberg, 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."]
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No. 19 – Henry Jarecki – entrepreneur
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No. 24 – Richard Watson Gilder – the poet and editor died in this house
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No. 24 – Thomas Alva Edison – inventor
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No. 24 – Albert Gallatin – Secretary of the Treasury
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No. 26 – Booth Tarkington – novelist and dramatist
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No. 26 – Steinway family – manufacturers of Steinway pianos
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No. 34 – James Cagney, Margaret Hamilton, and Gregory Peck,
[Finn, Robin. "Two-Acre Zone: The neighborhood isn't gated, but Gramercy Park is", The New York Times, September 30, 2012. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
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No. 36 – John Barrymore – star of stage and screen
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No. 36 – Daniel Chester French – sculptor responsible for the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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No. 36 – Alfred Ringling – founder of the Ringling Brothers Circus
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No. 38 – John Steinbeck – author
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No. 44 – Hart Crane – poet
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Where the Gramercy Park Hotel and the connected 50 Gramercy Park North co-op are now located:
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Elsewhere around the park:
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Frances Bavier – stage and television actress, Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show
[Horner, Bill III. "'Aunt Bee' didn't really gel with her TV castmates, but she found a home in retirement in Siler City", Chatham News and Record, August 17, 2022. Accessed December 23, 2023. "Frances Bavier was born in 1902 near Gramercy Park — a few blocks south of Central Park — in New York City."]
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John Bigelow – lawyer and statesman, who lived at 21 Gramercy Park
[Staff. "John Bigelow Dies in his 95th Year; Venerable Author, Diplomat, and Lawyer Passes Away at His Gramercy Park Home.", The New York Times, December 20, 1911. Accessed August 3, 2016. "John Bigelow, venerable man of letters, diplomatist, and lawyer, died yesterday morning at his home, 21 Gramercy Park, at the age of ninety-four."]
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Vincent D'Onofrio- actor, producer, director, and singer
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Jimmy Fallon – host of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
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Henry Herbert – English actor and producer
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Robert H. Ingersoll – businessman
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Karl Lagerfeld – fashion designer
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Maud Powell – female concert violinist and suffrage pioneer who cast her first ballot in 1919
[ "Time Line Maud Powell's Life and Career"]
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George Templeton Strong – lawyer and diarist, an original resident, who lived at 55 Gramercy Park North
[ George Templeton Strong Residence, New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Accessed August 3, 2016.]
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Uma Thurman – actress
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Rufus Wainwright – musician
Around the neighborhood
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John Avlon and Margaret Hoover, newscasters
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Peter Cooper – industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, lived just north of the park at 9 Lexington Avenue.
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Joseph P. Day (1874–1944), real estate broker and developer and
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Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace on 20th Street is a National Historic Site.
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Edith Wharton – author, born at 14 West 23rd Street and attended Calvary Church
[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.'"]
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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.
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Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, as well as her husband Marc Mezvinsky, used to live in the neighborhood before moving to nearby NoMad, selling their apartment for $4 million.
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Noah Baumbach - American filmmaker.
Many actors, actresses and artists live in the district including Kate Hudson, Whitney Port, Joshua Bell, Jimmy Fallon and Amanda Lepore.[Ohrstrom, Lysandra. "Winona Ryder Sells Gramercy Co-op For $2.2 M.", New York Observer, June 23, 2008. Accessed March 28, 2017.] The fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez has his studio on Irving Place and the neighborhood is home to numerous models' apartments from nearby agencies on Broadway. Ann Curry, an news presenter for NBC News, also lives in the neighborhood. Actor Jim Parsons also maintains a residence there.
In popular culture
Literature:
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[Staff. "Meet Mister Little", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, March 6, 1966. Accessed March 28, 2017.] |
[Elledge, Scott (1986) E. B. White: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton. ] |
[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."] |
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[ "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."] |
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[Darby, Ken (1983) The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe New York: Little, Brown. p.8. ] |
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[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."] |
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Films:
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Note: Gramercy Park is a private park, and film companies are not usually allowed to shoot there.
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[Epstein, Sonia Shechet, "Soylent Green is People: Interview with Dr. Andrew Bell", Museum of the Moving Image, February 13, 2017. Accessed November 25, 2020. "S&F: In Soylent Green, Gramercy Park is the only area left with a few trees, and there is nothing growing. Is it possible to produce food without soil?"] |
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[Bitette, Nicole. "GANGS OF NEW YORK: The NYC crews that ran the streets in The Warriors", New York Daily News, February 9, 2016. Accessed July 18, 2016. "The Gramercy Riffs – Gramercy, Manhattan"] |
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[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."] |
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Television:
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[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."] |
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Music:
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1969: American guitarist/songwriter Stefan Grossman released an album called The Gramercy Park Sheik
[ Stefan Grossman: Aunt Molly's Murray Farm/The Gramercy Park Sheik, AllMusic. Accessed March 28, 2017.]
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1985: Charly Garcia and Pedro Aznar's album Tango contains a track titled "Gramercy Park Hotel".
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1989: American jazz-funk/soul-jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr.'s album Time Out of Mind contains a track titled "Gramercy Park".
[Allmusic: Time Out of Mind – Grover Washington, Jr.]
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1997: Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee released a song titled "Grammercy sic Park Hotel" on his album Something to Remember Me By.
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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".
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2001: Dutch jazz pianist Michiel Borstlap owns a record label called "Gramercy Park" and he also composed a tune with the same name.
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2002: Electronic rock band Deadsy released a song entitled "The Key to Gramercy Park" on their album Commencement.
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2013: American guitarist Steve Hunter's album The Manhattan Blues Project contains a track titled "Gramercy Park".
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2015: Indie rock band Milo Greene album Control contains a track titled "Gramercy".
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2020: American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys's album Alicia contains a song titled "Gramercy Park".
[Weiner, Josh. "Our Take: Alicia Keys Keeps Her 20-Year Streak Of Greatness Alive & Well On Alicia", Atwood Magazine, September 29, 2020. Accessed November 25, 2020. "One of the best of the latter category is 'Gramercy Park,' named for a private patch of green in Keys' native Manhattan."]
Stage:
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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.
[Foley, F. Kathleen (June 3, 1994) "Engaging Actors in Flawed 'Park'", Los Angeles Times] It was also produced by the New York Stage and Film Company in Summer 1999 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.[Ehren, Christine (June 7, 1999) "NY Stage And Film Hosts David Marshall Grant, Blessing Plays" Playbill]
Gallery
File:3&4 Gramercy Park doorways.jpg| #3 & 4: Doorways of the Greek Revival , design attributed to Alexander Jackson Davis,[See the plaque on the building at 36 Gramercy Park plaque.jpg] Designed by James Riley Gordon.
File:326-330 East 18th townhouses.jpg|Italianate townhouses[1975 historic plaque on site, placed by New York Community Trust] on East 18th Street (1853), with cast-iron verandas reminiscent of the French Quarter of New Orleans.
See also
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List of neighborhoods in Manhattan
Informational notes
Citations
Further reading
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"Samuel B. Ruggles, Founder Of Gramercy Park", Antiques Digest, reprinted. Originally published 1921.
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Brooks, Gladys (1958) Gramercy Park: Memories of a New York Girlhood New York: Dutton
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Klein, Carole (1987) Gramercy Park: An American Bloomsbury New York: Houghton Mifflin
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Pine, John B. (1921) The Story of Gramercy Park: 1831–1921 New York: Gramercy Park Association
External links
Images
