The Harrison Grandelli Team, a residential real estate group at CORE, maintains this Gramercy Park neighborhood guide. We put it together to help clients understand what sets this East Side neighborhood apart: its private square, landmarked townhouse and apartment-house streets, its housing stock, and the everyday rhythm of Irving Place, Park Avenue South, and Third Avenue.
Gramercy is organized around Gramercy Park, a gated square between East 20th and 21st Streets at the head of Irving Place. Nineteenth-century houses, early apartment buildings, and clubhouses line the square, and the surrounding side streets keep a low, continuous street wall. It sits between Union Square and Flatiron to the west and Kips Bay and Stuyvesant Town to the east.
Summary
Today, Gramercy Park is defined by:
Housing dominated by prewar co-ops, townhouses, and a smaller condominium segment
Gramercy Park itself, a private, locked square open to keyholders in the surrounding buildings
Irving Place and Park Avenue South as the main north–south streets, with Third Avenue retail to the east
Cultural anchors including The Players, the National Arts Club, and the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
Subway access on the 6 and the N, R, and W, with Union Square's hub a few blocks southwest
History
The area was originally Lenape land. The name is thought to come from the Dutch Krom Moerasje, "little crooked swamp," for a marshy stream that once ran through here. In 1831 lawyer and developer Samuel B. Ruggles drained the land, laid out 66 lots around a private park modeled on London's residential squares, and deeded the park to the lot owners. He also created Irving Place and Lexington Avenue to give the square a frontage on the city grid. The park's iron fence went up in 1833.
Townhouses filled the square's four sides through the 1840s and 1850s. In 1888 actor Edwin Booth bought 16 Gramercy Park South and had Stanford White remodel it as The Players, a club for actors and artists. Next door, former governor Samuel J. Tilden's house was remodeled by Calvert Vaux in 1881–84 and later became the National Arts Club. Apartment houses arrived early here, beginning with 34 Gramercy Park East in 1883.
Boundaries
Gramercy has no single legally fixed outline. Brokers, maps, and civic sources use closely related edges. The boundary we use in this guide is:
South: East 14th Street
North: East 23rd Street (toward Rose Hill and Kips Bay)
West: Park Avenue South (toward Flatiron and Union Square)
East: First Avenue (toward Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village)
Primary ZIP codes: 10003 and 10010. The area falls mainly in Manhattan Community District 6, with western blocks in District 5.
Fuzzy edges: narrower definitions stop at East 18th Street and Third Avenue, closer to the historic district around the square. The blocks around Park Avenue South and 23rd Street are often grouped with Flatiron, and Rose Hill overlaps to the north.
Real Estate & Prices
The Harrison Grandelli Team works across Gramercy's co-ops, townhouses, and condominiums. The stock is heavily prewar co-op, with townhouses on the side streets and a smaller condominium segment, including some new conversions on Irving Place and Park Avenue South. Buildings on the square that carry key rights form a distinct tier.
Sales (NYC Department of Finance, October 2025 – September 2026)
Within the boundary used in this guide, residential sales recorded by the city from October 2025 through September 2026 had a median price of $1,150,000 across 354 sales. By type, the median was $802,000 for co-ops (216 sales), $1,758,000 for condominiums (128), and $6,125,000 for townhouses and other one- to three-family houses (10). Of these, 41 sales were closings at one newer condominium building, 350 East 18th Street; without them, the median would be $975,000. These figures count recorded co-op, condominium, and one- to three-family house sales. They leave out sales of whole rental buildings and count a purchase covering several tax lots once. They also exclude limited-equity co-op sales, non-home units such as storage, parking and staff rooms, sales under $100,000, small transfers on units that also recorded a market sale, and transfers that aren't home sales, such as commercial units and multi-property deals. Recorded sales lag closings by weeks to months, so the most recent months may be undercounted. Figures are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
Source: NYC Department of Finance recorded sales, October 2025 – September 2026.
Rent and Time on Market (StreetEasy, September 2026)
The median asking rent was $5,495 a month, and sale listings spent a median of about 97 days on market.
Source: StreetEasy Data Dashboard, September 2026.
These numbers describe a wide price band. Townhouses and large co-ops on the square sit well above the median.
Notable Restaurants & Food Scene
Gramercy Tavern (42 East 20th Street): Danny Meyer's New American restaurant, open since 1994, with a front tavern room and a more formal dining room.
Casa Mono (52 Irving Place): Andy Nusser's Spanish small-plates restaurant, with its sister wine bar Bar Jamón around the corner at 125 East 17th Street.
Pete's Tavern (129 East 18th Street at Irving Place): Tavern dating to 1864. Legend holds that O. Henry wrote "The Gift of the Magi" in a booth here.
Friend of a Farmer (77 Irving Place): Country-style American restaurant known for brunch.
Cosme (35 East 21st Street): Enrique Olvera's Mexican restaurant, on the Flatiron edge of the neighborhood.
Union Square Café (101 East 19th Street at Park Avenue South): Danny Meyer's first restaurant, opened in 1985 and relocated here in 2016.
Irving Place carries the densest dining in the core, and Third Avenue adds casual restaurants and bars.
Sources: restaurant websites (checked October 2026). Hours change, so confirm before visiting.
Parks & Outdoor Spaces
Gramercy Park: Two-acre private square, held in common by the owners of the surrounding lots. The gates are locked, and keys go to those properties for an annual fee, so the park is not open to the general public. Non-keyholders see it through the fence, which makes the perimeter a good walk. The park is traditionally opened to the public on Christmas Eve.
Union Square Park: Public park a few blocks southwest, home to the Union Square Greenmarket on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Madison Square Park: Public park a few blocks northwest, with Madison Square Park Conservancy's outdoor art program.
Stuyvesant Square: Public park split by Second Avenue between East 15th and 17th Streets, with nineteenth-century cast-iron fencing, in the southeastern part of the neighborhood.
Schools & Education
Public schools are operated by the NYC Department of Education, Community School District 2. Listing a school here is not a recommendation or a ranking. Check programs, admissions, and zoning on schools.nyc.gov and MySchools; zones change.
P.S. 40 Augustus Saint-Gaudens: PK–5, 320 East 20th Street. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/M040
J.H.S. 104 Simon Baruch: 6–8, 330 East 21st Street. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/M104
School of the Future: 6–12, 127 East 22nd Street. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/M413
Higher education: Baruch College (CUNY) is at 55 Lexington Avenue and East 24th Street, just north of the boundary. https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/
Transit & Getting Around
6: 23rd Street (Park Avenue South)
N / R / W: 23rd Street (Broadway), just west of the boundary
4 / 5 / 6 / L / N / Q / R / W: 14th Street–Union Square
L: Third Avenue and First Avenue (both on 14th Street)
The M101, M102, and M103 run in both directions on Third Avenue below East 24th Street; north of 24th, southbound buses shift to Lexington Avenue. The M15 and M15 Select Bus Service run north on First Avenue and south on Second Avenue. The M1, M2, and M3 run north on Park Avenue South. The M23 Select Bus Service crosses on 23rd Street, and the M14A and M14D Select Bus Service run along 14th Street. Union Square is the main transfer hub at the southern edge.
Shopping & Retail
Third Avenue: Groceries, pharmacies, and everyday retail.
Irving Place: Small shops, cafés, and bakeries between the restaurants.
Park Avenue South and Broadway: Mixed corridors of offices, showrooms, and retail at the western edge, including ABC Carpet & Home (888 Broadway).
Union Square Greenmarket: GrowNYC's flagship farmers market, open since 1976, a few blocks southwest.
Culture, Arts & Nightlife
The Players (16 Gramercy Park South): Private club for actors and artists, founded by Edwin Booth in 1888.
National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South): Arts club in the former Samuel J. Tilden mansion. Its galleries are often open to the public. Confirm hours.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (28 East 20th Street): Reconstruction of Roosevelt's 1858 birthplace, rebuilt in 1923, with period rooms and Roosevelt artifacts. Free tours run through the National Park Service.
Irving Plaza (17 Irving Place): Concert venue for touring bands, in a nineteenth-century building.
Brotherhood Synagogue (28 Gramercy Park South): Congregation housed in the 1859 Friends Meeting House, a landmark designed by Gamaliel King and John Kellum.
Nightlife centers on Irving Place's restaurant bars and taverns and on Third Avenue. Larger late-night scenes are south toward Union Square and the East Village.
Historic Landmarks & Notable Features
Gramercy Park Historic District: Designated in 1966 and expanded in 1988, covering the houses, clubs, and apartment buildings around the square.
34 Gramercy Park East: Red-brick Queen Anne apartment building completed in 1883, one of the city's early co-operatives.
36 Gramercy Park East: Neo-Gothic apartment house from 1910, with white terra-cotta knights flanking the entrance.
"Block Beautiful" (East 19th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue): Row of 1850s houses remodeled in the early twentieth century with stucco, tile, and planted forecourts.
Housing & Daily Logistics
Gramercy's appeal is about architecture and location. Prewar co-ops and townhouses offer high ceilings, fireplaces, and period detail on quiet side streets. Buildings east toward Third and First Avenues and south toward 14th Street widen the mix of layouts and price points.
In our experience, most Gramercy addresses are a short walk from the shops on Irving Place and Third Avenue and from a subway stop, with the Union Square hub at the southwest corner. Co-op board requirements, landmark rules, and condo bylaws are part of our diligence on almost every purchase.
About the Harrison Grandelli Team
As a residential group at CORE, we work across Manhattan and Brooklyn, including Gramercy's co-ops, townhouses, and condominiums. We maintain this guide as part of helping clients understand the neighborhood in depth. If you're thinking about a purchase or rental here, we'd be glad to share what we know on the ground.