Madison Square Garden

By: Maria12


Madison Square Garden represents four arenas in New York City, United States. It is often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden. It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there.

The arena had four incarnations. The first two were located at the Northeast corner of Madison Square (Madison Ave. and 26th St.) from which the arena derived its name. Subsequently a new 17,000-seat Garden (opened December 15, 1925) was built at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and the current Garden (opened February 14, 1968) is at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.

The arena bestows its name to the Madison Square Garden Network which is a cable television network. It broadcasts most sporting events that are held in the Garden, as well as concerts and entertainment events that have taken place at the venue.

Madison Square Garden derives its name from the park where the first two gardens were located (Madison Square) on Madison Avenue at 26th Street. The site of the first Madison Square Garden, now known as Madison Square Garden I, was formerly the passenger depot at 26th and Madison Avenue of the New York and Harlem Railroad. When the depot was moved to the current site of Grand Central Terminal in 1871 the depot was sold to P.T. Barnum and converted into a hippodrome called "Barnum's Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome." It was renamed "Gilmore's Garden" in honor of Patrick S. Gilmore in 1876. He was America's most well-known bandmaster at the time. Gilmore's Garden was an open air arena.

William Henry Vanderbilt officially renamed Gilmore's Garden "Madison Square Garden" and reopened the facility to the public on May 30, 1879 at 26th Street and Madison Avenue. The first arena was originally built for the sport of track cycling, which is still remembered in the name of the Madison event.

The second Madison Square Garden (now known as Madison Square Garden II), also located at 26th and Madison Avenue was designed by Stanford White.

The new structure was the city's second tallest building. It was 200 feet by 485 feet of Moorish architecture with a minaret-like tower soaring 32 stories over Madison Square Park and The Garden's main hall. With measurement of 200 by 350 feet ,permanent seating for 8,000 people and floor space for thousands more, this building was the largest in the world.Topping the garden was a statue of Diana which is now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The statue is 18 feet high and is made of finely wrought copper and is gilded. It was designed by Augustus St. Gaudens, and was made by W. H. Mullins at Salem, Ohio. It weighed 1,800 pounds but spun in the wind.

This marvelous venue hosted the 1924 Democratic National Convention. Afterwards, it was demolished to make way for the landmark New York Life Insurance Building.

Madison Square Garden III' is famous for boxing games. The architect of the building is exceptional.The building exterior in contrast to the ornate towers of the first two Garden was a simple box. Its ornate marqueest was its most unique feature. It was above the main entrance, with its seemingly endless abbreviations(Tomw., V/S, Rgrs, Tonite, Thru, etc) Even the name was abbreviated: Madison Sq. Garden. Fritzie Zivic successful welterweight defense against Henry Armstrong on January 17, 1941 was witnessed by 23,190 spectators.That is the biggest attendance record of any of the Gardens. MSG III was featured prominently in the 2005 Ron Howard film Cinderella Man.

The venue has the honor of hosting the only indoor bout in the career of Jack Dempsey. It cost 4.75 million dollar to build; this one hosted seven NCAA men's basketball championships between 1943 and 1950. It also hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1954 and 1955.

The third Garden had also many drawbacks. It had poor sightlines, especially for hockey. Only the fans sitting in the first row could have a better view of the game. There was also problem of poor ventilation. The permission of smoking affected badly. It often led to a haze in the upper portions of the Garden.

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Maria is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about her travel, theater and concert experiences. She can be reached at maria@ticketnest.com