By Ilene Dube

It's Been Locked Since 1844.

Only residents of the Gramercy Park neighborhood are given a key. These residents include Alexander Rower, a grandson of sculptor Alexander Calder, and Samuel G. White, whose great-grandfather was architect Stanford White (of McKim, Mead & White).

Every year, the locks and keys to the two-acre oasis that is the city’s only private park are changed. You even need a key to exit through one of four wrought iron gates. No longer made of gold, as they were in the mid 1800s, the keys are a nickel alloy manufactured by Medeco—and they cannot be duplicated.

There are about 400 keys, and a third are held by doormen and concierges. Residents who hold the remaining keys must pay $350 a year—and replacement keys costs $1,000. But that’s just a fraction of the cost of entree. Each of the 39 buildings on the park pays a yearly assessment of $7,500 per lot, funding the park’s maintenance.

If you are fortunate enough to have a key, you’ll see at the park’s center a bronze statue of noted 19th-century actor Edwin Booth in the role of Hamlet. (Those without a key can see it through the South Gate—binoculars help.) A great American actor and founder of the Booth Theatre, Edwin’s reputation was tarnished when his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Lincoln.

The bronze was erected in 1916 by The Players Club, founded by Booth nearly 25 years after his brother’s crime (for which Edwin disowned him). The club’s mission is to bring actors into contact with men of different professions such as industrialists, writers and other creative artists. A National Historic Landmark at 16 Gramercy Park, The Players Club has a membership that includes prominent bankers, lawyers and businessmen, as well as writers, journalists, sculptors, architects and painters. Liza Minelli, Dick Cavett and Walter Cronkite have been members. The Greek Revival building, modeled after London’s Garrick Club, still has the original gaslights at its entryway.

Bronzed Booth, clad in tunic and cape, is surrounded by formal gardens edged in boxwood. On a recent day, yellow leaves were raining over the beds and a Calder sculpture moved with the wind as residents gathered on a bench for conversation. Outside the park, pedestrians jogged, walked dogs or pushed strollers.

Those who are privileged to have access may read the paper, meditate or come up with a brilliant idea. Cyrus Field conceived the trans-Atlantic cable here. But there are no dogs, no alcohol, no smoking, no bicycling, no hardball, no lawn furniture, no Frisbees and no feeding the birds and squirrels— Gramercy Park Trustees drafted these rules in 2003. Even photo sessions are verboten, ever since revelers at a wedding shoot trampled the begonias.

When E. B White set his 1945 children’s literary classic “Stuart Little” in Gramercy Park, he described it as “a pleasant place near a park in New York City.” In Woody Allen’s 1993 “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” Diane Keaton and Alan Alda, at a wine tasting at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park, remark on the beauty of the place.

Astors, Morgans, Rockefellers and Roosevelts lived in Gramercy Park, designated a historic district in 1966. Oscar Wilde, James Cagney, John Steinbeck, Thomas Edison, Uma Thurman, Winona Ryder, Jimmy Fallon and Rufus Wainwright have been residents. John Barrymore lived in the Stanford White-designed “Stuyvesant Fish House” at 19 Gramercy Park.

The neighborhood’s boundaries are 14th Street to the south, First Avenue to the east, 23rd Street to the north, and Park Avenue South to the west. Surrounding neighborhoods are the Flatiron District, Union Square, the East Village, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village and Kips Bay.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Gramercy Park was a swamp. In 1831, attorney Samuel B. Ruggles, an urban visionary and open-space advocate, filled in the swamp and landscaped it. He deeded two acres to be used as a park surrounded and maintained by a residential neighborhood. Laying out the park is cited as one of the first attempts at city planning in the nation. Modeled after a London square, Gramercy Park was always intended to be exclusive to residents. The 10-foot iron gate went up in 1833.

CLOISTERED REALM OF DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY

Not much changes architecturally in a historic district, but in 2012, 18 Gramercy Park South—at one time the Salvation Army's Parkside Evangeline Residence for Women and most recently a facility of the School of Visual Arts—was sold to developers for conversion into condos by Robert A. M. Stern, including a $42 million penthouse duplex. The 17-story building is the tallest around the park and dates from 1927. Marketing materials for the residence proclaim “In each great city of the world, the most privileged residents claim an area of refuge. A private quarter where the urban bustle does not intrude. In London’s Berkeley Square or the Place Vendôme in Paris, the urban elite reserves to itself a cloistered realm of domestic tranquility... A place of architectural distinction. A place where genteel living is its own reward.”

But sometimes there is trouble in Paradise. When billionaire but absentee homeowners install pools and geothermal wells, creating traffic disruptions and cacophony in the otherwise peaceful retreat, neighbors are not pleased. You can catch the latest installment with pinpointing detail on the blog of the Gramercy Park Block Association: www.gramercyparkblockassociation.org.

The GPBA formed in 1994 after the son of a resident was brutally beaten outside his home by a gang of twenty. GPBA is dedicated to public safety, crime prevention, historic preservation and quality-of-life issues, and defeated plans for a men’s shelter to be opened at the Armory on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. The shelter would have included sex offenders, ex-convicts and substance abusers, according to GPBA news.

Like any other community association, GPBA brings residents together: witness a Menorah Lighting, Christmas Eve Caroling, Easter Egg Hunt, National Night Out Against Crime and an annual members’ party. There are charitable initiatives enabling residents to give to the less fortunate: clothing and pantry drives help children, low-income, formerly homeless, chronically ill and the elderly.

If you really want to get into the park, your options include wrangling an invitation from a resident friend (key holders are allowed up to five guests). If you’re a member in good standing of the National Arts Club, The Players Club, the Brotherhood Synagogue or Calvary-St. George’s Church, you can get a key. Or, book a room at the century-old Gramercy Park Hotel, where the walls display a rotating selection of artwork by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Tom Wesselman and other 20th-century luminaries.

HUMPHREY BOGART SLEPT HERE

The 90-year-old hotel received a 21st century facelift from Oscar-nominated director and artist Julian Schnabel in 2006. Based on his dream of a Renaissance Revival style, there are handcrafted Moroccan tiles and Italian fireplaces. Bronze door handles, curtain rods and finials were individually forged by Schnabel. Each of the 185 guest rooms and suites features a one-of-a-kind selection of hand-stitched leather-topped desks, red velvet curtains and mahogany English drinking cabinets. Guests at the Gramercy Park Hotel have included Humphrey Bogart, Babe Ruth, John F. Kennedy, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Madonna and U2.

President and Michelle Obama ate in Maialino, the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Italian trattoria, last year, before viewing the Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun.” Danny Meyer’s celebrated Union Square Hospitality Group, recipient of 20-plus James Beard Foundation Awards, created the food and beverage concepts for the hotel’s restaurants. In season, there is dining on the rooftop garden, accompanied by one of the best views of the New York skyline.

Room rates begin at $629. But before you tuck in, don’t forget the park, which closes at dusk.