The Ghouls of Gramercy

We take construction seriously in this cityHappy Halloween!A few years ago I wrote about the Halloween decorations on the Upper East Side. But in the neighborhood for which the Gramercy Tools brand and logo is named, Gramercy Park, some people also put in a fair amount of effort. Part two of the construction display The Gramercy neighborhood is loosely 14th Street to 23rd Streets, Park Avenue South to First Avenue. The area in the teens and twenties was first built just before the Civil War. Small houses with stores lined the avenues and the side streets were full of townhouses. Once upon a time the Third Avenue Elevated train ran along Third Avenue and blocked light and air and consequently froze development. When the El was torn down in the 1950s ("farewell, 'El,' a long, long, long farewell," said the New York Times), a huge expansion of large apartment buildings began on the avenue. The side streets came to include large buildings but also tenement buildings and many wonderful mid…