New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [50]
The park is still owned by residents of buildings in the surrounding square, although neighbors from the area can now buy visiting privileges.TIP Guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel can enjoy coveted access to this private park.
In 1966 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Gramercy Park a historic district. Notable buildings: No. 15 was once home to Samuel Tilden, governor of New York. It was designed by Calvert Vaux in Gothic Revival brownstone with black granite trim and included a secret passageway to 19th Street so Tilden could escape his political enemies. It is now home to the 100-year-old National Arts Club. Next door at No. 16 Gramercy Park South lived the actor Edwin Booth, perhaps most famous for being the brother of Lincoln’s assassin. In 1888 he turned his Gothic-trim home into the Players, a clubhouse for actors and theatrical types who were not welcome in regular society. A bronze statue of Edwin Booth as Hamlet has pride of place inside the park.
Other notables include the School of Visual Arts’ women’s residence at No. 17, which contains the former home of Joseph Pulitzer, and the mock-Tudor at No. 38, home to John Steinbeck from 1925 to 1926 when he struggled as a reporter for a New York newspaper.
Before leaving this elegant oasis and returning to the city’s hustle and bustle a few blocks away, be sure to stroll along Irving Place, named by Samuel Ruggles for Washington Irving, and running from 14th Street to Gramercy Park South between 3rd Avenue and Park Avenue South. A few places not to be missed are The Inn at Irving Place, Pete’s Tavern, and Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon. While you’re walking, wander down “The Block Beautiful”—a charming tree-lined stretch on East 19th Street between 3rd Avenue and Irving Place. | 175 5th Ave., bordered by E. 20th and E. 21st Sts., and Gramercy Park West and Gramercy Park East, Gramercy Park | 10010 | Subway: L, N, Q, R, 4, 5, 6 to Union Sq./14th St.
Macy’s.
Sure, you can shop in Macy’s in other cities, but there’s a say-you-did-it appeal to walking that indoor city block between 6th Avenue (where it meets Broadway) to 7th Avenue, from 34th to 35th streets, verifying that yes, it is indeed the world’s largest store (11 floors, 2 million square feet of selling space).
In that spirit, be sure to ride on one of the narrow wooden escalators you can find tucked among its metallic brethren: installed in 1902, they were the first escalators ever used in an American store. | W. 34th St. between Broadway at 6th and 7th Aves., Murray Hill | 10001 | 212/695–4400 | www.macys.com | Hrs vary seasonally; Mon.–Sat. 10–9:30, Sun. 11–8 | Subway: B, D, F, N, Q, R, M to 34th St./Herald Sq.; 1, 2, 3 to 33rd St.
Madison Square Park.
The benches of this elegant tree-filled park afford great views of some of the city’s oldest and most charming skyscrapers (the Flatiron Building, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower, the New York Life Insurance Building, and the Empire State Building) and serve as a perfect vantage point for people-, pigeon-, dog-, or squirrel-watching. Add free Wi-Fi, the Shake Shack, temporary art exhibits, and a summer music series, and you’ll realize that a bench here is definitely the place to be.
New York City’s first baseball games were played in this 7-acre park in 1845 (though New Jerseyans are quick to point out that the game was actually invented across the Hudson in Hoboken, New Jersey).
On the north end of the park, an imposing 1881 statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens memorializes Civil War naval hero Admiral David Farragut. An 1876 statue of Secretary of State William Henry Seward (the Seward of the term “Seward’s Folly,” coined when the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867) sits in the park’s southwest corner, though it’s rumored that the sculptor placed a reproduction of the statesman’s head on a statue of Abraham Lincoln’s body. | E. 23rd to E. 26th Sts., between 5th and Madison Aves., Flatiron District | 10010 | Subway: R to 23rd St.
The Strand Bookstore.
Opened in 1927, and still run