Madison Square Garden (1890–1926) was an
indoor arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the second by that name, and the second and last to be located at
26th Street and
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Opened in 1890 at the cost of about $500,000, it replaced the
first Madison Square Garden, and hosted numerous events, including boxing matches, orchestral performances, light operas and romantic comedies, the annual French Ball, both the
Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He wa ...
and the
Ringling circuses, and the
1924 Democratic National Convention, which nominated
John W. Davis
John William Davis (April 13, 1873 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served under President Woodrow Wilson as the Solicitor General of the United States and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom ...
after 103 ballots. The building closed in 1925, and was replaced by the
third Madison Square Garden at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, which was the first to be located away from
Madison Square
Madison Square is a town square, public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway at 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The square ...
.
History
![Interior of Madison Square Garden at night, from Robert N](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Interior_of_Madison_Square_Garden_at_night%2C_from_Robert_N._Dennis_collection_of_stereoscopic_views_crop.jpg)
Madison Square Garden II, as it has come to be called in retrospect, was designed by noted architect
Stanford White
Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect. He was also a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms. He designed many houses for the rich, in additio ...
, who kept an apartment there. In 1906 White was
murdered in the Garden's rooftop restaurant by millionaire
Harry Kendall Thaw
Harry Kendall Thaw (February 12, 1871 – February 22, 1947) was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr.. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, the younger Thaw is most notable for murdering the renowned architect Sta ...
over White's affair with Thaw's wife, the well-known actress
Evelyn Nesbit
Evelyn Nesbit (born Florence Evelyn Nesbit; December 25, 1884 or 1885 – January 17, 1967) was an American artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her years as a young woman in New York City, particularly her inv ...
, whom White seduced when 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
__NOTOC__
Trial of the century is an idiomatic phrase used to describe certain well-known court cases, especially of the 19th, 20th and 21st century. It is often used popularly as a rhetorical device to attach importance to a trial and as such i ...
.
The new building, which replaced an antiquated
open-air structure that was previously a railroad passenger depot, was built by a syndicate which included
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
,
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
,
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...
,
[, pp.330–333] Darius Mills,
James Stillman
James Jewett Stillman (June 9, 1850 – March 15, 1918) was an American businessman who invested in land, banking, and railroads in New York, Texas, and Mexico. He was chairman of the board of directors of the National City Bank. He forged alli ...
and
W. W. Astor
William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of ...
. White gave them a
Beaux-Arts structure with a
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
feel, including a minaret-like tower modeled after
Giralda
The Giralda ( es, La Giralda ) is the bell tower of Seville Cathedral in Seville, Spain. It was built as the minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style ...
, the bell tower of the
Cathedral of Seville
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See ( es, Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along ...
– soaring 32 stories – the city's second tallest building at the time – dominating
Madison Square Park
Madison Square is a public square 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 Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States. ...
. It was by , and the main hall, which was the largest in the world, measured by , with permanent seating for 8,000 people and floor space for thousands more. It had a 1200-seat theatre, a concert hall with a capacity of 1500, the largest restaurant in the city and a roof garden cabaret.
["Madison Square Garden II]
/ref> The final cost for the building, which the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' called "one of the great institutions of the town, to be mentioned along with Central Park and the bridge of Brooklyn" was $3 million.
Topping the Garden's tower was a statue of Diana, by noted sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trave ...
, which caused Madison Square Park to become known as "Diana's little wooded park". The original gilt copper statue was tall, and weighed , and spun with the wind; Saint-Gaudens had draped the statue in cloth, but this was soon blown away. The statue was put in place in 1891, but was soon thought to be too large by Saint-Gaudens and White. It was removed and placed on top of a building at The World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordi ...
in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, but the bottom half was destroyed by a fire after the close of the Exposition, and the top half was lost. In 1893, a hollow second version of the statue, tall and made of gilded copper, replaced the original. This is now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
, and a copy is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. Saint-Gaudens made several smaller variants in bronze, one of which was on display in the entryway of both Madison Square Garden III
Madison Square Garden (MSG III) was an indoor arena in New York City, the third bearing that name. Built in 1925 and closed in 1968, it was located on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets in Manhattan, on the site of ...
, built in 1925, and the current Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
.
The opening of the new arena was attended by over 17,000 people – who paid up to $50 for tickets to the event – including J.P. Morgan, the Pierponts, the Whitneys and General William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...
.
Sports
In 1902 and 1903, the Garden hosted the World Series of Football
The World Series of Soccer was a series of club games hosted by Major League Soccer from 2005 to 2007. It was used by MLS to provide its teams with opportunities to compete against top international teams.
Previous uses of name
The term, World S ...
, which is best remembered for showcasing the very first indoor professional football games. The 1902 event involved five teams. The Knickerbocker Athletic Club, "New York team", Syracuse Athletic Club and the Warslow Athletic Club
Warslow Athletic Club (also formally known as the Whitestone Warslows and the Warslow Indians) were an early amateur, and later professional, American football team. The club, based on Long Island, is best remembered for playing in the 1902 World ...
represented New York state. Meanwhile, the Orange Athletic Club
The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from ...
represented New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. The eventual winner of the 1902 series was the Syracuse Athletic Club. The event returned to the Garden in 1903 for the second and final time. The 1903 series featured the Knickerbocker Athletic Club, Olympic Athletic Club, Oreos Athletic Club and Watertown Red & Black
The Watertown Red & Black is a semi-professional American football team based in Watertown, New York. The team is the oldest active semi-pro football team in the United States, and can trace its history to 1896, although the Professional Footba ...
representing New York state. Meanwhile, the Orange Athletic Club represented New Jersey, and the Franklin Athletic Club
The Franklin Athletic Club was an early professional football team based in Franklin, Pennsylvania. It was considered the top team in professional football in 1903, by becoming the US Football Champions and winning the 1903 World Series of Foot ...
represented western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
. The Franklin Athletic Club would go on to claim the event's final title.
On January 8, 1909, Matthew Maloney finished ahead of James Crowley and Sidney Hatch
Sidney Herbert Hatch (August 18, 1883 – October 17, 1966) was an American athlete who competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, United States, in the 4 mile team where he won the silver medal with h ...
in an indoor marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...
before 5,000 "wildly cheering" spectators held within the Garden. Maloney was reported to have set a new indoor record for the event (2:54:45.4).
The Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...
were first held at the arena in 1914.
The Garden continued to host The Westminster Kennel Club's annual dog show. This championship is the second longest running U.S. sporting event (behind only the Kentucky Derby).
Boxing has a long history at Madison Square Garden. The original Garden presented boxing matches even before they were technically legal, calling them "exhibitions" or "illustrated lectures". Among the many events which were held in the new Garden were a number of significant boxing match-ups. A bout between defending heavyweight champion Jess Willard
Jess Myron Willard (December 29, 1881 – December 15, 1968) was an American world heavyweight boxing champion billed as the Pottawatomie Giant who knocked out Jack Johnson in April 1915 for the heavyweight title. Willard was known for size rat ...
and challenger Frank Moran on March 25, 1916, which brought in $152,000, the largest Garden take to that date. Also, Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. ...
's knockout of Bill Brennan in the 12th round on December 14, 1920.
Professional wrestling was also successfully staged at the venue, as with later incarnations of the Garden. The World Heavyweight Championship derives from George Hackenschmidt
Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt ( – 19 February 1968) was an early 20th-century Estonian strongman, professional wrestler, author, and sports philosopher who is recognized as professional wrestling's first world heavyweight champion.
Hack ...
's victory in two straight falls at the Garden over Tom Jenkins on May 4, 1905. Joe Stecher
Joe Stecher (April 4, 1893 – March 29, 1974), sometimes spelled Joe Stetcher, was an American professional wrestler and three-time World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. Known for his ferocity, tremendous leg strength and extensive knowledge o ...
regained the championship from Earl Caddock
Earl Caddock (February 27, 1888 – August 25, 1950) was an American professional wrestler and World Heavyweight Champion who was active in the early portion of the twentieth century. As the first man to bill himself as "The Man of 1,000 Holds" ...
at the venue on January 30, 1920, the earliest American professional wrestling match to survive on film. The venue also hosted the next two title changes, Ed "Strangler" Lewis
Robert Herman Julius Friedrich (June 30, 1891 – August 8, 1966), better known by the ring name Ed "Strangler" Lewis, was an American professional wrestler and trainer. During his wrestling career, which spanned four decades, Lewis was a four-ti ...
' victory over Stecher on December 13, 1920, and his subsequent loss of the championship to Stanislaus Zbyszko on May 6, 1921.
From 1899 until its demolition, Madison Square Garden hosted the Six Days of New York
The Six Days of New York was a former six-day cycling event, held in New York City, in Madison Square Garden's velodrome. Between 1899 and 1961, a total of 73 editions were held, sometimes three per year.Gabriele, Michael C. (2011), The Golden Ag ...
, an annual six-day racing
Six-day cycling is a track cycling event that competes over six days. Six-day races started in Britain, spread to many regions of the world, were brought to their modern style in the United States and are now mainly a European event. Initially, ...
event of track cycling
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles.
History
Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...
.
Demolition
Despite its importance to the New York cultural scene in the early 20th century, Madison Square Garden II was never any more of a financial success than the original Garden was,[Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike, ''Gotham: A History of New York to 1989''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ] and the New York Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United State ...
, which held the mortgage on it, decided to tear it down to make way for a new headquarters building, which would become the landmark Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...
-designed New York Life Building
The New York Life Building is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue in New York City. The building, designed by Cass Gilbert, abuts Madison Square Park in the Rose Hill and NoMad neighborhoods of Manha ...
. Construction on the new building began in 1926, and was completed in 1928.
In popular culture
*The 1924 Anita Stewart
Anita Stewart (born Anna Marie Stewart; February 7, 1895 – May 4, 1961) was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era.
Early years
Anita Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York as Anna Marie Stewart on February 7, 18 ...
film, ''Great White Way
Broadway () is a road in the U.S. state of New York. Broadway runs from State Street at Bowling Green for through the borough of Manhattan and through the Bronx, exiting north from New York City to run an additional through the Westchester ...
'' featured the second Garden.
*The 1932 film, ''Madison Square Garden'', starred Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''T ...
, Zasu Pitts
Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the ...
and William Boyd, who would later find fame as "Hopalong Cassidy".
*The 1936 film, ''Rhythm on the Range
''Rhythm on the Range'' is a 1936 American Western musical film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Bing Crosby, Frances Farmer, and Bob Burns. Based on a story by Mervin J. Houser, the film is about a cowboy who meets a beautiful young wom ...
'', starred Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
, Frances Farmer and Bob Burns.
*The 1975 novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
and 1981 film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
''Ragtime'' both feature the second Garden as a key location. In the film, recreations of the rooftop garden shooting and tower statue are shown.
See also
* Madison Square
Madison Square is a town square, public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway at 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The square ...
* Madison Square Garden (1879)
Madison Square Garden (1879–1890) was an arena in New York City at the northeast corner of 26th Street (Manhattan), East 26th Street and Madison Avenue (Manhattan), Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The first venue to use that name, it seating capa ...
* Madison Square Garden (1925)
Madison Square Garden (MSG III) was an indoor arena in New York City, the third bearing that name. Built in 1925 and closed in 1968, it was located on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets in Manhattan, on the site of ...
* Madison Square Garden (1968)
* Madison Square Garden Bowl
Madison Square Garden Bowl was the name of an outdoor arena in the New York City borough of Queens. Built in 1932, the arena hosted circuses and boxing matches. Its seating capacity was 72,000 spectators on wood bleachers. The idea of the stadiu ...
References
External links
Arena information
*
{{Broadway theatres
.1890
Former music venues in New York City
Former sports venues in New York City
Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan
Demolished sports venues in New York (state)
Defunct boxing venues in the United States
American football venues in New York City
Boxing venues in New York City
Defunct concert halls in the United States
Defunct indoor arenas in New York City
Defunct sports venues in Manhattan
Convention centers in New York City
Indoor track and field venues in New York (state)
Music venues in Manhattan
World Series of Football (1902–03)
Sports venues completed in 1890
1890s architecture in the United States
Buildings and structures demolished in 1926
Entertainment companies established in 1890
1890 establishments in New York (state)
1925 disestablishments in New York (state)
Velodromes in New York City
Entertainment companies disestablished in 1925