Vintage Photographs Show All Four Original Madison Square Gardens

The current sports and concert arena Madison Square Garden was not the first of its name here in New York City, with 4 previous buildings each calling themselves Madison Square Garden.

Madison Square Garden is certainly the recognizable name in arena entertaining, hosting Rangers and Knicks games, concerts, even political conventions. But it inherited that reputation from three other buildings which also called themselves ‘Madison Square Garden’.

Check out this Bowery Boys episode for a full history on the different Madison Square Gardens.

Pre-Garden: It was all Barnum, with his spectacular tented Roman Hippodrome.

Madison Square Garden I, built for William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Madison Square Garden II, designed by Stanford White, studded with towers, weathervanes, grand arches and other Moorish touches.

Madison Square Garden III. Why be fancy? Tex Rickard, moving the venue uptown to 50th Street, was more concerned with the entertainment inside than the flash and fancy outside.

Madison Square Garden IV, designed by Charles Luckman Associates. This may surprise no one, but their other claims to fame include designing both Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Johnson Space Center in Texas.

via Bowery Boys

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Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

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