Madison Square Garden (1891–1926) was an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 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, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Opened in 1891 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 and the Ringling circuses, and the

1924 Democratic National Convention The 1924 Democratic National Convention, held at the Madison Square Garden (1890), Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9, 1924, was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It took ...

, 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 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, the fourth president of the United St ...

History

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 and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

, 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, he is most notable for having murdered the renowned architect Stanford Wh ...

over White's affair with Thaw's wife, the well-known actress

Evelyn Nesbit Florence Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 or 1885 – January 17, 1967) was an American model (person), artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her career in New York City, as well as her husband, railroad scion Har ...

, who claimed White had raped her 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. 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 and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

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 with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was ...

,, pp.330–333 Darius Mills, James Stillman and W. W. Astor. White gave them a Beaux-Arts structure with a

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

feel, including a minaret-like tower modeled after

Giralda The 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, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style belfry added by the Catholics ...

, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville – 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, the fourth president of the United St ...

. 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called "one of the great institutions of the town, to be mentioned along with Central Park and the bridge of Brooklyn" was $3 million. Madison Square Garden Diana

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 sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

, which caused Madison Square Park to become known as "Diana's little wooded park". One of the possible models for Diana was Julia Baird, a well-known artist's model. 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 from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 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 (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, 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 ...

, and a copy is in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. Saint-Gaudens made several smaller variants in bronze, one of which was on display in the entryway of both Madison Square Garden III, 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 Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. 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 JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * '' Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Pa ...

, the Pierponts, the Whitneys and General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sports

In 1902 and 1903, the Garden hosted the World Series of Football, which is best remembered for showcasing the first indoor professional football games. The 1902 event involved five teams. The Knickerbocker Athletic Club, "New York team",

Syracuse Athletic Club A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football L ...

and the Warlow Athletic Club represented New York state. Meanwhile, the Orange Athletic Club represented

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. The eventual winner of the 1902 series was the

. 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 Fo ...

represented

western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the Unite ...

. 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 his teammat ...

in an indoor

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), 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 ...

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 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 third-longest running U.S. sporting event (behind only the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks). 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 matchups. 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. He won the world heavyweight title in 1915 by knocking out Jack Johnson (boxer), Jack Johnson. Wil ...

and challenger

Frank Moran Francis Charles Moran (18 March 1887 – 14 December 1967) was an American boxer and film actor who fought twice for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, and appeared in over 135 movies in a 25-year film career. Sports career Mor ...

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 boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. One of the most iconic athl ...

'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 (1 August 1877 – 19 February 1968) was an Estonian Strongman (strength athlete), strongman, wrestling, amateur and Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, writer, and Philosophy of sport, sports philoso ...

'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 ...

regained the championship from Earl Caddock 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' 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 takes place 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. Initiall ...

event of

track cycling Track cycling is a Cycle sport, 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 i ...

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 and the largest mutual insurance, mutual life insurance company in the United States, and is ranked #69 on the 2025 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporat ...

, 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 Early skyscrapers, skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minneso ...

-designed

New York Life Building The New York Life Building, also known as 51 Madison, is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue in the Rose Hill, Manhattan, Rose Hill and NoMad, Manhattan, NoMad neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York Cit ...

. 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, ...

film ''

The Great White Way Broadway () is a street and major thoroughfare in the U.S. state of New York. The street runs from Battery Place at Bowling Green in the south of Manhattan for through the borough, over the Broadway Bridge, and through the Bronx, exiting n ...

'' 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 stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator'' (1940) ...

Zasu Pitts ZaSu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film drama film, dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic ''Greed (1924 film), Greed'', along wi ...

and William Boyd, who would later find fame as "Hopalong Cassidy". *The 1975

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

and 1981

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

''Ragtime'' both feature the second Garden as a key location. In the film, recreations of the rooftop garden shooting and tower statue are shown.

References

External links