Madison Square Garden, known as the Garden , takes its name from the neighborhood where the first incarnations of the venue were located in New York City. Madison Square was on Madison Avenue at 26th Street. Despite being later moved to different spots in the city, the venue kept its original name, though there is no sign of a garden or a square in the area today.
The current Madison Square Garden ( MSG) opened after the Pennsylvania Railroad tore down the above-ground portions of Pennsylvania Station and continued railway traffic underneath on February 14, 1968. The new structure was one of the first of its kind to be built above an active railroad system and the platforms of an active railroad station. It was an engineering feat constructed by R.E. McKee of El Paso, Texas.
The Original Garden, known as Madison Square Garden, was the former passenger depot of the New York and Harlem Railroad on Madison Street.Circus mogul P.T. Barnum bought and converted the terminal when the railroad depot was moved to Grand Central Terminal in 1871. Barnum transformed the place into a hippodrome called Barnum’s Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome. It was later renamed Gilmore’s Garden after America’s famous bandleader of the time, Patrick S. Gilmore.Millionaire William Henry Vanderbilt named Gilmore’s Garden Madison Square Garden and threw open the doors once again, in 1879.
Still located at 26th and Madison Avenue the Second Madison Square Garden, still located at 26th and Madison Avenue, was designed by the famous architect Stanford White. The venue enjoyed the status of New York City’s second tallest building for a time. The main hall was the largest in the world, and contained permanent seating for 8,000 people with room for many thousands more.
The Third Garden built at the corner of 50th Street and Eighth Avenue was dubbed The House That Tex Built , having been the brainchild of boxing promoter Tex Rickard. Principally a boxing venue, hosting numerous near-mythic bouts between some of the best fighters in the world. The Garden played host to the only indoor bout in the career of boxing giant Jack Dempsey.
Today the Garden or MSG as it is know is the home of the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks. It host large rock concerts and college basketball’s “March Madness” as well many other large scale events like political conventions or Wrestle mania.
Madison Squar Garden is located 4 Penn Plaza New York, NY 10001 phone (212) 307-7171
