Park Ownership and Access
Gramercy Park is held in common as one of the city's two privately owned parks – Sunnyside Gardens in Queens is the other – by the owners of the 39 surrounding structures, as it has been since December 31, 1831. 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 as of 2005 was $350, with a $1,000 fee for lost keys, 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. As of 2012 there were 383 keys in circulation, each individually numbered and coded.
Members of the Players Club and the National Arts Club as well as guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel, which has 12 keys, have access, as does Calvary Church and the Brotherhood Synagogue; hotel guests are escorted to the park and picked up later by hotel staff. In addition, the owners of the luxury condominium apartments at 57 Irving Place, which was completed in 2012, will have key access to the park, despite being located several blocks from the park, by becoming members of the Players Club.
At one time, the park was open to the public on Gramercy Day – which changed yearly, 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". The park, however, continues to be open to the public on Christmas Eve.
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. The police refused to take action. Later, a suit was filed against the park's administration in Federal Court. The suit was settled out of court in 2003. Most of the children settled for $36,000 each, while one received $50,000.
Visitors to the park cannot drink alcohol, smoke, ride a bicycle, walk a dog, play ball or Frisbee or feed the birds and squirrels.
Read more about this topic: Gramercy Park
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