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34
Gramercy Park East
Manhattan
Designed by George da Cunha and
erected in 1883, 34 Gramercy Park East is one of the oldest
apartment buildings in New York City and the earliest
cooperative in New York (predating the Dakota). A
determined effort was made to distinguish this building from
countless squalid, overcrowded working-class tenements.
Before the 1870's, virtually the only New Yorkers who lived in
multiple dwellings were poor. However, as land values
rose, single-family houses became prohibitively expensive.
in order to alter public perception of multiple dwellings, this
Victorian red brick building was endowed with some of the
features of a Fifth Avenue brownstone. Its lobby was clad
in opulent materials, and its large apartments were limited to
three per floor and advertised as "French Flats".
34 Gramercy Park is one of the many
buildings surrounding Gramercy Park, the only surviving private
park in New York City. The park was developed by Samuel
Ruggles who bought this land in 1831 from James Duane, then
mayor of New York City. After first draining the marshy
site, Ruggles adopted a real estate technique employed by
British and French housing developers, laying out sixty-six
building lots around a central park. Homeowners were and
are still drawn to this site because of the access to the
private park. In 1966 the park and surrounding blocks were
designated an historic district. |
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