th<\/sup> Streets, Madison Square Park.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1871, a large train depot at the north end of that park was abandoned when Grand Central Station opened. Seeing an opportunity, an entertainment entrepreneur named P.T. Barnum leased the vacant depot from Cornelius Vanderbilt, and transformed it into an open-air \u2018hippodrome\u2019 for circus performances. It was subsequently sublet \u2013 for only 2 years \u2013 to a concert promoter, who filled the place with fountains and flowers and renamed it \u2018Gilmore\u2019s Concert Garden.\u2019 It served as a meeting place for political events, boxing matches, and, famously, the site of the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, in 1877. Somewhere along the way, it became known as \u2018The Garden.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1890, the drafty old building was purchased by a consortium that included Barnum, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and W.W. Astor. They hired the most famous architect of the day, Stanford White, to design a replacement. And he came up with a colossus that featured the largest main atrium in the world, a concert hall, seating for 8000, the largest restaurant in the city, and a rooftop cabaret. Though it was designed in Beaux Arts style, it had a Moorish feel and a bell tower modeled after the minaret of the Cathedral of Seville, atop of which was an 18-foot sculpture of Diana that turned in the wind 32 stories above the ground. The structure was a modern marvel and the second-tallest building in New York, but \u2013 as you might expect in such a twisted tale \u2013 it became best known for a murder, which occurred in 1906, when Henry Kendall Thaw shot Stanford White in the rooftop restaurant for having an affair with his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1925, the famous building was torn down to make room for the New York Life building. The venue was moved away from Madison Square, one of the city\u2019s swankiest neighborhoods, to Hell\u2019s Kitchen. A new place was built with seating for 18,000, and which hosted boxing and other sporting events. And then, in 1968, it was moved and replaced by a much larger fourth incarnation further south, which is built, ironically, right atop\u2026a railroad station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so we come back to today. The heart of the Penn Station complex is something round\u2026 it\u2019s an old roadhouse, born in a swampy cemetery fit only for soldiers and criminals\u2026transformed by a showman and multiple millionaires\u2026twice moved, three times destroyed, four times rebuilt\u2026witness to the crime of the century\u2026home to politicians, purebreds, pugilists and power forwards\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the famous thing that is misnamed three times over. It has nothing to do with James Madison. It\u2019s not Square. It\u2019s not a Garden. But it\u2019s the most famous arena in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
**<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now, with an impending massive neighborhood redevelopment heading its way, it might have to move and be rebuilt one more time. Several plans have been floated, including building a massive new complex at Hudson Yards. Earlier this year the owner rejected the idea of moving anywhere. And then Hochul put out her plan. And then, just this week, the MSG brass stated that they\u2019d be willing to relocate, but only across the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crain\u2019s NY Biz estimates that moving it anywhere will cost over $8B. And that kind of money brings out all kinds of interesting characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so once again it\u2019s game on: the fate of Madison Square Garden is in play, and it will be decided by the latest generation of New York\u2019s rail lords, millionaires, politicians, and con men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The more things change, the more some things remain enigmatically the same. If you commute into New York, hopefully you don\u2019t have to endure Penn Station. It\u2019s been a mess for a very long time, with cramped spaces, disgusting common areas, bad services, and bathrooms that smell like\u2026bathrooms. Well, during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Penn-Proposal.png?fit=711%2C501&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1888,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions\/1888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}