New York City, perhaps better than anywhere else, knows how to keep a secret.

In a city known for showing off and creating iconic images, buildings, and a cityscape

instantly recognizable around the world, there are still a few secrets that the city hides

from view. Yet without discovering them and taking a deep

look into their history, we can't get the full picture of this ever-evolving metropolis. And one of

these is the enclave known as Gramercy Park. Today's Gramercy Park located just north and east of

Union Square, a bit before the majestic Upper East Side begins its march up the island, is a place of quiet and serenity, still lined with many original townhouses going back to its beginnings in the early 19th century.

And indeed, there is a park at its center. And as you will hear, it is a park,

unlike perhaps any other. Strolling the perimeter of Gramercy Park today on a beautiful spring

day is a moment when much of the modern city falls away and you really can be transported back in

time to the world of

Knickerbocker, New York, and the world of the Gilded Age. Remnants of both are clearly alive

and well today in the mansions, private clubs, and visible architecture that can still be found

unchanged to this day. Despite its history, Gramercy Park represents some extraordinary modern concepts of urban

planning and construction, ideas that in fact came to be in those brick and brownstone

days of old New York.

Joining me today for a look at Gramercy Park, past and present, is returning listener-favored historian and writer Keith Talion.

Keith and I are going to discuss just how this jewel of urban planning came to be.

Some of the most famous names associated with it from Stanford White to Edwin Booth, among others,

and why New Yorkers have

passionately protected its uniqueness from its beginnings to the present day. And today, too,

you'll be able to get in on a bit of its secrets.

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