Everything about Madison Square totally explained
Madison Square is formed by the intersection of
Fifth Avenue and
Broadway at
23rd Street in the
New York City borough of
Manhattan. The square was named for
James Madison, fourth
President of the United States and the principal author of the American
Constitution.
The focus of the square is
Madison Square Park, a 6.8 acre (2.75 hectare) public park, which is bounded on the east by
Madison Avenue (which starts at the park's southeast corner at 23rd Street); on the south by 23rd Street; on the north by
26th Street; and on the west by Fifth Avenue and Broadway as they cross.
The park and the square are at the northern (uptown) end of the
Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan. The use of "Madison Square" as a name for the neighborhood has fallen off, and it's rarely heard.
Madison Square is probably best known around the world for lending its name to
Madison Square Garden, which was a sports arena located just northeast of the park until 1925. The current Madison Square Garden, the fourth such building, isn't in the area. Notable buildings around Madison Square include the
Flatiron Building, the
Met Life Tower, and the
New York Life Building. A new exclusive luxury high-rise condominium tower, "One Madison Park", will rival the Met Life Tower in height.
Madison Square can be reached using local service on the
R,
W, and
N lines of the
subway at the
23rd Street and
28th Street Stations. In addition, local stops on the
6 and
F and
V lines are one block away at
Park Avenue and
Sixth Avenue, respectively.
Early New York
The area where Madison Square is now had been a swampy hunting ground, and first came into existence as a public space in
1686. In
1807, "The Parade", a tract of about 240 acres (97.12 hectares), was set aside for use as an
arsenal, a barracks, and a
potter's field. There was a
United States Army arsenal there from
1811 until
1825 when it became the House of Refuge for the Society for the Protection of Juvenile Delinquents for children under sixteen committed by the courts for indefinite periods. It used the facility until
1839 when the building was destroyed by fire.
The roots of the
New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, one of the first professional baseball teams ever, are in Madison Square. Amateur players began in
1842 to use a vacant sandlot at 27th and Madison for their games and, eventually,
Alexander Cartwright suggested they draw up rules for the game and start a professional club. When they lost their sandlot to development, they moved to Hoboken, where they played their first game in
1846.
The city's Parks Department designated the area immediately around the monument as a park called
General Worth Square.
Worth's monument was one of the first to be erected in a city park since the statue of
George III was removed from
Bowling Green in
1776, and is the only monument in the city except for
Grants Tomb that doubles as a mausoleum.
Renewal
Madison Square Park was relandscaped in
1870 by
William Grant and
Ignatz Pilat, a former assistant to
Frederick Law Olmstead. The new design brought in the sculptures that now reside in the park. One notable sculpture is that of
Secretary of State William H. Seward, which sits at the southwest entrance to the park. Seward, who is best remembered for purchasing
Alaska ("Seward's Folly") from
Russia, was the first New Yorker to have a monument erected in his honor.
Other statues in the park depict
Roscoe Conkling, who served in
Congress in both the
House and the
Senate;
Chester Alan Arthur, the twenty-first
President of the United States; and Admiral
David Farragut, who is supposed to have said "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." in the
Battle of Mobile Bay during the
Civil War.
Other park highlights are an ornamental fountain added in
1867 and the Eternal Light Flagpole, dedicated on
Armistice Day 1923 and restored in
2002, which commemorates the return of American soldiers and sailors from
World War I.
In
1876 a large celebration was held in Madison Square Park to honor the centennial of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, and from 1876 to
1882, the torch and arm of the
Statue of Liberty were exhibited in the park in an effort to raise funds for the building of the base of the statue.
Madison Square was the site of some of the first electric street lighting in the city. In
1879 the city authorized the Brush Electric Light Company to build a generating station at 25th Street, powered by steam, that provided electricity for a series of arc lights which were installed on Broadway between
Union Square (at
14th Street) and Madison Square. The lights were illuminated on 20 December
1880. A year later, 160-foot "sun towers" with clusters of arc lights were erected in Union and Madison Squares.
Madison Square Garden
The building that became the first Madison Square Garden at 26th Street and Madison Avenue was originally the
passenger depot of the
New York and Harlem Railroad. When the depot moved uptown in
1871, the building was sold to
P.T. Barnum who converted it into the "Hippodrome" for circus performances. In
1876 it became "Gilmore's Garden," an open air arena used for sporting events such as marathon races and, in
1877, the first
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It was finally renamed "Madison Square Garden" in
1879 by
William Kissam Vanderbilt, who continued to present sporting events, the National Horse Show and boxing "exhibitions", since competitive boxing matches were illegal at the time. Vanderbilt eventually sold his "patched-up grumy, drafty combustible, old shell" to a syndicate that included
J. P. Morgan,
Andrew Carnegie,
James Stillman and
W. W. Astor.
The building that replaced it was a
Beaux-Arts structure designed by the noted architect
Stanford White. White kept an apartment in the building, and was shot dead in the Garden's rooftop restaurant by millionaire
Harry K. Thaw over an affair White had with Thaw's wife, the well-known actress
Evelyn Nesbit, who White seduced shen she was 16. The resulting sensational press coverage of the scandal caused Thaw's trial to be one of the first
Trials of the Century.
Madison Square became known as "Diana's little wooded park" after the huge bronze statue of the Roman goddess
Diana by
Augustus Saint-Gaudens that stood atop the 32-story tower of White's arena – at the time it was the second-tallest building in the city.
The Garden hosted the annual French Ball, both the Barnum and the
Ringling circuses, orchestral performances, light operas and romantic comedies, and the
1924 Democratic National Convention, which nominated
John W. Davis after 103 ballots, but it was never a financial success.
On
October 17,
1966, a fire across the street from the park at #7 23rd Street, resulted in the second most deadly building collapse in the history of the
New York City Fire Department, when twelve
firefighters – two chiefs, two lieutenants, and eight firefighters – were killed. A plaque honoring them can be seen on the building currently occupying the site, Madison Green.
Madison Square now
Having fallen into disrepair, Madison Square Park underwent a total renovation which was completed in June 2001. To recapture the park’s magnificence, the
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation asked the
City Parks Foundation to organize a revitalization campaign. Their "Campaign for the New Madison Square Park" was a precursor to the current Madison Square Park Conservancy, a
public-private partnership formed to watch over the park.
One amenity added to the park in July 2004 is the
Shake Shack, a popular permanent stand that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, shakes and other similar food, as well as wine. Its distinctive building, which was designed by
Sculpture in the Environment, an architectural and environmental design firm based in
Lower Manhattan, sits near the south east entrance to the park.
The neighborhoods around Madison Square have changed frequently, and continue to do so. Commonly referred to as the
Flatiron District, the area has, since the 1980s, changed from a primarily commercial district with many photographer's studios – which located there because of the relatively cheap rents – into a prime residential area. Madison Avenue continues to be mostly a business district, while Broadway just north of the square holds many small wholesale shops. The area west of the square remains mostly commercial, but with many residential structures being built.
Buildings
On the south end of Madison Square, southwest of the park, is the
Flatiron Building, one of the oldest of the original New York skyscrapers, and just to east at 1 Madison Avenue is the
Met Life Tower, built in
1909 and the tallest building in the world until
1913, when the
Woolworth Building was completed. It is now occupied by
Credit Suisse since MetLife moved their headquarters to the
PanAm Building. The 700 foot marble clock tower of this building dominates the park.
Nearby, on Madison Avenue between 26th and
27th Streets, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden, is the
New York Life Building, built in
1928 and designed by
Cass Gilbert, with a square tower topped by a striking gilded pyramid. Also of note is the statuary adorning the Appellate Division of the
New York State Supreme Court on Madison Avenue at
25th Street.
As of March 2008, "One Madison Park", an exclusive 47-51 story luxury residential condominium tower is under construction at 22 East 23rd Street, at the foot of Madison Avenue, across from Madison Square Park. When completed, it'll be almost as tall as or slightly taller then the Met Life Tower (604-617 feet, depending on the source, compared to 614 feet for the Tower), and taller than the Flatiron Building. The asking price for the three-floor penthouse is $45 million.
Gallery
Madison Square and Madison Square Park>
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