Four “Places” – Wilton, Gramercy, St Andrews, and Manhattan – debuted in 1901 on the W.G. Nevin tract just south of Pico. While I assume Gramercy Place takes its name from NYC’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, I can’t say why exactly, as the tract’s primary owner William George Nevin (1855-1902) wasn’t from New York but from regular old York, Pennsylvania. He joined the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1876 and was named general manager of its SoCal division in 1897, which made him something of a VIP when he and his family relocated to Los Angeles from Chicago. But the final year of his life was plagued by ill health and he died just a month after his tract opened. (Nevin Avenue, south of downtown, was named in October 1902, presumably in Nevin’s memory.) Nevin’s son Bill (1881-1934) remained near the tract and went into real estate. He declared bankruptcy in 1933, likely a victim of the Depression, and died the next year; his wife Hattie followed him in 1936.
Find it on the map:
