statue of St. Francis, an Italian Bible of 1477, and part of the original
English Coverdale Bible. Chapel and reception walls contain tiles from
Glastonbury Abbey in England.

The United Homing Pigeon Concourse, one of the largest racing
pigeon organizations in the city, meets at Teutonia Restaurant, Third Ave-
nue near Sixteenth Street, a block west of the square. A block north is
the German-American Rathskeller, known in riper days as Scheffel
Hall and later as Allaire's. Many noted writers quaffed its foaming pilsener,
among them James Huneker, H. C. Bunner, Bayard Taylor, and Brander
Matthews. O. Henry called the place Rheinschlossen and wrote some of
his best stories in the old taproom. Taylor and Oliver Herford lived near
by on Eighteenth Street, while Bunner and Matthews had quarters with
other writers at 330 East Seventeenth Street, an early apartment house.

Gramercy Park District

Area: 18th St. on the south to 23d St. on the north; from 3d Ave. west to 4th Ave.

The "golden keys" to Gramercy Park, symbol of the exclusiveness
guaranteed by a real-estate operator about a century ago, are still required
to open the gate to New York's most important privately owned park.
A forbidding eight-foot iron fence encloses this oblong tract two blocks
square that is "forever" locked to the public.

The park's creator, Samuel B. Ruggles, was among the first of New
York's early real-estate operators to offer for sale a development with
building restrictions. He caught the fancy of the rich by guaranteeing to
a selected group—those who bought his property—the exclusive use of a
private park as a permanent privilege. Keys—no longer golden—to the
iron gates are distributed to owners and tenants under the close scrutiny
of the trustees of Gramercy Park. Residents in near-by streets who have
been approved by the trustees are given keys for annual fees. All others
must be satisfied with a glimpse through the gate.

The Dutch named the locality Krom Moerasje, meaning "little crooked
swamp," which also designated the brook that used to twist from Madison
Square to the East River near Eighteenth Street. Later, in 1692, the section
was called Crommashie Hill. By the usual process of corruption the name
became Gramercy.

Gramercy Park was a marsh in 1831 when Ruggles drained it, laid out
the green and the streets on the model of an English square and offered