36 Gramercy Park East: Review and Ratings

Review of 36 Gramercy Park East by Carter Horsley

When it opened in 1906, 36 Gramercy Park East was notable for its ornate, white terracotta façades and deeply recessed entry flanked by two sentries in full armor. 

The formidable but elegant and handsome, U-shaped building had 24 apartments, many of which over the years were subdivided and then some were recombined. 

Sales began at the overhauled building in 2009, when 53 units were offered for sale as condominiums by Maurice Mann of Mann Realty Associates.

Mr. Mann was also involved in the conversion of the Apthorp on the southwest corner of 79^th Street at Broadway.

Bottom Line

One of the grand dames of Gramercy Park, this white building has its sentry statues in armor defending her honor and her keys to the park while putti flank her spandrels. Hoorah!

Description

Occupying the former site of the Sanderson’s Family Hotel, the building plot had been sold by L. Rodney Berg to John E. Olsen who planned a 12-story building with nine-room, three-bath apartments with a spare room for a servant. 

Olsen commissioned James Riely Gordon to design the building entirely in white terra-cotta when white marble for the lower three floors proved too costly.  

The original design had four knights with “great shields” according to Tom Miller at www.daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/.  When penthouses were added in 1917, those knights disappeared. 

The building has a four-step-up entrance and sidewalk landscaping. 

The building has many bay windows and spandrels graced by putti flanking shields.

Amenities

The building has bicycle storage, cold storage, health club, concierge service by Abigail Michaels, 24-hour doorman and key to Gramercy Park.

Apartments

Apartments have tiled fireplaces, porcelain bathtubs dryer and electric and gas lighting, a vacuum cleaning system, filtered water and parquet floors. 

Apartment T on the 6thm, 8^th and 10^th floors has a 16-foot-long studio and an open kitchen.

A two-bedroom unit has a 26-foot-long living/dining room with a fireplace and a three-sided bay window, a 9--foot-long kitchen with a three-sided bay window, a bedroom two three-sided bay windows.  The apartment also has a 12-foot-wide bedroom with a three-sided bay window. 

Apartment 8N gas a very large foyer that leads to a 26-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a bay window and a large dining room next to a large enclosed and windowed kitchen and two bedrooms.

History

The building was described in The World’s New York Apartment House Album as the Gramercy Park Club House. 

Residents included John Barrymore, the actor, Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, and Eugene O’Neill, the writer, and one of Ringling Brothers. 

The building entered bankruptcy in 1946 and the cooperative apartments became rentals.