Gramercy Park (sometimes misspelled as Grammercy) is a small, fenced-in private park in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, USA. The park is claimed to be one of only two remaining private parks in New York City with almost no access to the public, the other being in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens.

Location

Gramercy Park is located between East 20th Street, called Gramercy Park South at the park, and East 21st Street (Gramercy Park North) and between Gramercy Park West and Gramercy Park East, two mid-block streets which are between Park Avenue South and Third Avenue. Lexington Avenue, a major north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of Manhattan, terminates at the northern end of Gramercy Park, and Irving Place begins at the southern end.

History

The area which is now Gramercy Park was once in the middle of a swamp, called by the Dutch settlers Krom Moerasje, meaning "little crooked swamp", through which ran the spring-fed stream Krom Mesje ("little crooked knife"), which had, over time, carved out a 40-foot deep gully on its way along what is now 21st Street to the East River at 18th Street. These original names became corrupted to "Crommessie", which itself was further corrupted to "Gramercy."

By 1831, when Samuel B. Ruggles bought the property from James Duane, a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, it was farmland, called "Gramercy Farm". 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 60 parcels of land he had plotted to surround it, and sought tax-exempt status for the park, which the Board of Alderman granted in 1832. The park was fenced in in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s. Ruggles also brought about the creation by the state legislature of Lexington Avenue and Irving Place, 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.

In the center of the park is a statue of one of the area's most famous residents, Edwin Booth. 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. His mansion still stands at, "No. 16," and is today the home of the Players' Club.

In 1966, Gramery Park was designated an historic district.

One of the most significant steam explosions 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.

Exclusivity

Gramercy Park is held in common as one of the City's two privately owned parks (Sunnyside Gardens is the other) by the owners of the surrounding structures, as it has remained since December 31, 1831 – although the park was opened to Union soldiers involved in putting down the Draft Riots of 1863.

Residents living in buildings that face the park may buy a key to the park, which is changed annually. In addition, members of the Players Club and the National Arts Club as well as guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel have key access, as does Calvary Church.

The park was at one time opened to the public on Gramercy Day (which changed yearly, but was often the first Saturday in May). In 2007, the Trustees of Gramercy Park announced that it would no longer open the park on that day, though caroling in the park on Christmas Eve is expected to continue, but no longer connected to Calvary Church.

In 2001 a lawsuit against the park's administration was filed in the Federal Court. The suit involved minority schoolchildren who had allegedly been asked to leave the park.

Notable residents

• Valentine Mott - an original resident, chief medical officer of the Union Army and founder of Bellevue Hospital and NYU Medical School
• George Templeton Strong - an original resident
• James Harper - an original resident
• Edwin Booth - famed Shakespearean actor, founded the Players Club
• Samuel J. Tilden - whose house became the National Arts Club
• Stanford White - architect, lived where the Gramercy Park Hotel is now
• Henry Herbert - actor and producer
• Ann Curry - talk show host (Today Show)

In popular culture

• Because of the park's private nature, film companies are not usually allowed to shoot there. 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.
• 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.
• In the 1973 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."
• Jazz fusion/ rock duo Steely Dan made mention of this park in "Janie Runaway", from their 2000 album Two Against Nature: Down in Tampa the future looked desperate and dark / Now you're the wonderwaif of Gramercy Park.
• Dutch jazz pianist Michiel Borstlap owns a record label called "Gramercy Park" and he also composed a tune with the same name.
• The Industrial Metal band Deadsy released a song entitled "The Key to Gramercy Park" on their 2002 album Commencement.
• Artist and Producer of electronic music HMC International (Hospitality music concepts) also released a track with the identical name “The Key to Gramercy Park” in 2009.
• The popular book, The Luxe by Anna Godbersen takes place in the neighborhood around Gramercy Park, and a character in Jack Finney's, Time and Again lives there as well.
• 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.
• Several key scenes of Jed Rubenfeld's 2006 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.
• In the film The Warriors, one of the fictional gangs featured is the Gramercy Riffs.

References

Notes

Further reading

• "Gramercy Park", The New York Times, Editorial, Sunday, July 3, 1921, p.22. On Gramercy Park's 90th anniversary and some history.
• "Samuel B. Ruggles, Founder Of Gramercy Park", Antiques Digest, reprinted. Originally published 1921.
• Gramercy Park: An Illustrated History of a New York Neighborhood by Stephen Garmey, 1984, ISBN 0-917439-00-7.

External links

• Gramercy Park in the NYC Insider: an Insider's Guide to New York City
• New York Architecture Images- SEARCH- gramercy park, kips bay
• Gramercy Park on Citysearch NYC
• History of the Gramercy Park Hotel
• Satellite Photo of Gramercy Park on Google Maps