In December 2013, the Gramercy Park Block Association shared Tom Miller’s architectural history of 3 and 4 Gramercy Park West. The Greek Revival houses are especially recognizable for their connected cast-iron porches, a delicate composition facing the Park.

The account connects No. 4 with publisher and former mayor James Harper and No. 3 with lawyer Benjamin Franklin Lee. It follows later changes at No. 3, including its use by the YWCA’s training school and the Netherland Club before conversion to apartments.

The paired porches and the lamps at No. 4 give residents visible clues to the buildings’ history. Their inclusion in the Block Association’s newsletter complemented the Block Association’s preservation campaigns with a closer look at the architecture already around us.

Berenice Abbott’s photograph of the elaborate ironwork, balconies and entrance steps at Nos. 3–5 Gramercy Park in 1935.
Gramercy Park, Nos. 3–5, November 27, 1935. Berenice Abbott

The neighborhood archive

Sources

Adapted from the architectural account shared by the Block Association.