Ideas with a life beyond the neighborhood

Peter Cooper’s home at 9 Lexington Avenue connects Gramercy to manufacturing, technical education and the institution that became Cooper Union.

In Cyrus W. Field’s nearby home, a small group of collaborators developed the effort to connect Europe and America by telegraph. The Atlantic cable took years of persistence, and the neighborhood celebrated its success.

Libraries, publishing and public service

James Harper, the publisher and former mayor, lived at No. 4. Samuel J. Tilden’s home on the south side became the National Arts Club; his bequest helped make the New York Public Library possible.

John Bigelow, Tilden’s neighbor and biographer, was also central to the library’s early leadership.

Institutions and neighbors

Calvary Church, the Friends Meeting House and All Souls supported religious and social work; The Players and the National Arts Club brought people in the arts together.

The history chapters explore these connections in greater depth: the Atlantic cable, learning and libraries, faith and service and the arts and clubs.

Neighbors organize to preserve a place

In 1890, when the State Legislature passed a bill permitting an elevated cable railroad to slice directly through Gramercy Park along East 20th and 21st Streets, residents mobilized and persuaded Governor David B. Hill to veto the measure. In 1912, when the Dual System subway expansion threatened to cut a transit line through the Park to link Irving Place and Lexington Avenue, the Gramercy Park Association organized property owners and convinced the City to route the Lexington Avenue line without disturbing the Park. The Association subsequently supported protection of the surrounding residential district.

That earlier organization was distinct from today’s Gramercy Park Block Association, founded in 1994.

About us — Arlene Harrison & the Gramercy Park Block Association

Follow the people behind the addresses

Find the houses and their histories on the Buildings & Monuments map.

Sources

Based on John B. Pine, The Story of Gramercy Park, 1831–1921 (1921), printed pages 20–50.

  • Pine, 1921 · neighborhood and civic history