Flashback: Madison Square Garden

This week's episode of Mad Men looked at the 4th (and current) incarnation of Madison Square Garden (opened February 14th, 1968) at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets. The MSG men wanted the Don Draper treatment to spin their campaign and gain public approval for, you know, tearing down the street level portion of Pennsylvania Station; a beautiful Beaux-Arts structure that perfectly backdropped many long farewells during WWII.

Draper's off-the-cuff pitch goes like this, "I was in California. Everything is new, and it's clean. The people are filled with hope. New York City is in decay. But Madison Square Garden—it's the beginning of a new city on a hill." At the time, the opposition's outcry was so loud that it led to the creation of our city's Landmarks Preservation Commission! But alas, the building was demolished and now Britney Spears has a place to play when she comes to New York.

Prior to all this, the first two Gardens were located at the northeast corner of Madison Square (which originally housed Madison Cottage) from which the arena got its name. The original housed 10,000 and was open from 1879 to 1890; the 2nd was up and running from 1890 through 1925 and had an 8,000 person capacity (it was torn down to make way for the New York Life Insurance Building); the 3rd Garden opened in 1925 and shut down in 1969. It was located at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and when it was torn down, some wanted to build the world's tallest building on its site—this resulted in strict height restrictions in Hell's Kitchen and left the space a parking lot through 1989. And let's not forget, last year they wanted to move the Garden for a 5th time!

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on August 25, 2009 3:59 PM

Comments [rss]

NeatEngine

"We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build, but by the monuments we destroy." - Ada Louise Huxtable

BotanistPrime

I hope every single developer or politician who let the original Penn Station be destroyed is rotting in hell.

rasputinsghost

We lost Penn Station, and we got something that has all the dignity of a gas station bathroom

Matt Joyce

We pay for power on the MSG, we paid for it's construction. Now we don't pay to go see the knicks lose in it. It's a blight on midtown, in fact that entire area of the city is a blight aside from the old post office which is fairly beautiful albeit way too big for its own use.

My suggestion, knock it down build a park.

It's a waste of tax payers money and an ugly building that serves little use to anyone.

jtj74

The current Penn Station and the history of how it came to be has to be the single worst aspect of NYC. This place is truly the ugliest thing to grace the city. Actually, the new Cooper Union Building may have taken that position.

DanielJ

Madison Cottage/ 5th Ave Hotel isn't where the original Garden was. It was on the other corner of the park, where the New York Life Tower is now. The 5th Av Hotel was on 23rd and Broadway, where the Toy Center/ luxury apts is now.

metalbot

women used to be so stylish. now they wear "hot pants" and "thongs".

schizofriendly

Perhaps she is wearing a thong, but we'll never know because there are dead animal skins sewn together and hanging over her butt.

Ethan

Penn Sucktion.

Mr Mel

I believe what happened is that The Pennsylvania Railroad was in dire financial financial straits and was looking to unload the buildings. The RR guys were living in a previous century and could care less about history or preservation.

savedbyzero

Re: the 2nd Garden and it's well known scandal.

nyorker555

+1 to Nanny State.

MSG is one of the ugliest public buildlings both inside and out.

Toby von Meistersinger

Ideally, the building that housed the headquarters for the Pennsylvania Railroad should be found and torn down. Seems only fair.