Gramercy Park, New York

Crommessie Vly was a brook that flowed through a gully that is now 21^st Street, into the East River at 18^th Street. The name Crommessie was Anglicized, as most of the Dutch names were, into Gramercy.

The neighborhood we know as Gramercy Park encompasses the area from 14^th Street to 23^rdStreet, and Park Avenue South East to First Avenue.  The centerpiece of the neighborhood is the private park, which is one of only two such parks in the city where residents must own a key in order to access the park. The park was the vision of Samuel Ruggles, who was an advocate of open space, and he purchased the land in 1831 after becoming concerned about the northward growth of Manhattan.

During the initial period of residential development in Gramercy Park, in the 1840's and 1850's, the primary type of construction focused on brick and brownstone row houses and mansions, complemented by churches. Lots that faced the park were among the most prestigious places to reside in pre-Civil War New York. Some of these homes can still be seen along Gramercy Park West and South. In 1869 a new era began with the construction of the Stuyvesant Apartments on East 18^th Street. This building was the first one designed and built to attract a middle-class clientele. This project was joined by others in the 1870's and 1880's, most notably in 1878 by 129 East 17^thStreet, which is believed to be the oldest intact apartment house in the city. During the 1880's there were other important buildings which joined it, such as "The Gramercy" at 34 Gramercy Park East (George de Cunha, 1883), which is one of the earliest cooperative buildings in New York.

Among the famous members of society who lived in Gramercy Park at some time are President Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy,

In the decades that followed, apartment house construction flourished on Gramercy Park North and East 22^ndStreet.  Buildings of note include the Beaux-Arts building at 144 East 22^ndStreet, built by Sass Smallheiser in 1901; and Bernstein Bernstein's unusual building at 152 East 22^nd Street (1907), known for its five stepped gables. 

As we entered the roaring 1920's, Gramercy Park North was completely transformed as the elegant row houses were replaced by high-rise luxury apartment buildings, and in 1924 the Gramercy Park Hotel. The changing character of the neighborhood was prompted in part by the movement of prosperous residents to other areas in order to escape the commercial growth that came with the new apartment buildings. Several sites were redeveloped into loft and factory buildings, and Gramercy Park lost some of its cache.  The most interesting development was the proliferation of charitable institutions including the Brotherhood Synagogue [which was established in 1857 and served as an Underground Railroad station before the Civil War], The Calvary Church, the United Charities building, the Russell Sage Foundation building, the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children building, and the Church Missions House [a designated landmark building].

Gramercy Park and the surrounding blocks were designated an historic district in 1966. Today the neighborhood is considered to be one of the most desirable in Manhattan, and continues to be a tapestry of old and new architecture.