You Can Now Go Inside The Most Exclusive Park In Manhattan Thanks To Google Maps

Gramercy Park is the most exclusive park in Manhattan.

The two-acre plot may be small, but it's steeped in history and surrounded by some of the city's oldest buildings.

Since it opened in 1831, the park has been off-limits to outsiders and the best-kept secret of its famous residents. Oscar Wilde, the Steinways, and Thomas Edison all had the special keys, and two presidents - Teddy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy - played behind these wrought iron fences as children.

What makes it so hard to get into is that only 383 keys for the gates exist, and they're all owned by the residents of the 39 apartment buildings that border the park.

But now, thanks to an Airbnb user, there's a Google Maps tour of the exclusive park.

According to The New York Times, Pittsburgh resident Shawn Christopher gained access to the park while renting a Gramercy Park apartment on Airbnb for his honeymoon this year. He took 360-degree panoramas using the app Photo Sphere and uploaded it to Google Maps, unaware that such behavior is expressly forbidden by Gramercy Park Block Association.

Gramercy Park Block Association President Arlene Harrison told the Times that she had no intention of removing the image from Google Maps, though she added that if Google had asked to photograph the park, she would have turned them down.