old madison square gardenfond reccollections of a true landm

Old Madison Square Garden: Fond Recollections of a True Landmark From the world cup of soccer to the superbowl, people all throughout theworld have dreams of being sport stars or even just meeting their favoriteathlete. It is in some peoples mind, the ideal american dream. In a time knownas the roaring twenties, people throughout New York were working toward theamerican dream. This dream included a more splendid lifestyle that allowed forfreedom and fun. In the middle of the Manhattan burough of New York City wasa lively stretch of town known as Madison Square. This community centerincluded thousands of immagrants striving to accomplish the American dream.Many people showcased thier talents in music, sport and theater. This park hadall of the necessary characteristics to gain popularity except for one integrallandmark that would bring the cultures together. Madison Square Garden hadthe exact combination of commerce and sport to bring the people together. Thefriendly confines of Old Madison Square Garden was a melting pot for not onlyresidents of the community, but for athletes all over the world. Athletes wouldcome to New York not just for competition, but also for the experiences anddifferent cultures (Jackson 72). Nowhere else in the world do you get what's inNew York. How all the different lifestyles can live together in harmony, for themost part, and make New York the greatest city in the world. When the wreckingball took down Old Madison Square Garden in 1925, people from not just thecity, but from all over New York came to pay their last respects to a place thathad more meaning than sport (Jackson 68). It represented the hopes and dremsof thousands as well as the stability of the community. As people hace come andgone for 35 years the Garden was always there. As it fell so did the era, so didthe dreams. To move the Garden out of its original home to a new and improvedlocation may have benefited the people of the time, but for those who dontforget there past the end of the original Garden is a tragedy because of itshistorical and cultural importance to the great city of New York. The first Madison Square Garden was constructed out of need, the needfor a cultural center in the middle of Madison Square. A place for conventions,sporting events and other activities that the community can share. MadisonSquare was a lively part of New York City in the early 1900's. Adjacent fromBroadway it was filled with theateres, music halls, hotels and restaurants thathad people coming from the outskirts of town just to visit them. Competing withBroadway, Madison Square had many theateras to compete with the newtechnology of motion pictures (Lachetta 43). Throughout the late 1800's and theearly 1900's the Madison Square was a very colorful place, that lacked one thinga true family place with many events to offer the different life styles. The place the Madison Square needed was Madison Square Garden, alandmark for the entire city to enjoy. The site of the first two Madison SquareGardens was formarly the Union Depot of the New York and Harlem Railroad(Nichols 83). In 1871 the depot was moved to the current site of Grand CentralTerminal and the Depot was sold to P.T. Barnum. Mr. Barnum converted thedepot into his popular hippodrome, a large tented area. As the hippodromestood in the middle of the square people waited for a new and improvedhippodrome which would be Madison Square Garden. In 1890 Stanford Whitedesigned the Garden as an imposing Spanish style Renaissance structure,which occupied most of 28th street (Burgess 46). It's central tower modeled afterthe Giralda in Sevilla, Spain, was topped with Augustus St. Gauden's statue ofDiana. This structure would turn out to be the dominant figure in the skyline for35 years. The first garden was completed with the largest Ampitheater in thecountry, the Garden Theater as well as the Roof Garden, concert Hall, cafe andeven an immense swimming pool. The new Madison Square Garden was animmediate sensation. Some of the events held in the Garden included prizefights, wild west shows, the first american automobile show was held in MadisonSquare Garden. It also included a track for biking or running and of course P.T.Barnum's circus (Whyte 14). The Garden was considered a prize asset to thecity and was a landmark for all visitors to enjoy. The architect of this glorius land mark, Stanford White, was veryinstrumental in the well being and finance of the Garden. One of the reasonsthat the Garden fell in 1925 was due to his death. Stanford White was not just awonderful architect, but a lady's man at that. His two homes were the frequentsites of all night parties. One of his favorite girls was a girl by the name ofEvelyn Nesbit, a former girl who went on to marry millionaire Harry K. Thaw. Onenight while eating dinner at the roof Garden. Mr. Thaw and his new brideobserved Stanford White eating at a nearby table. Evelyn whispered a fewwords to Thaw who immediately got up and furiously stormed over to White. Hedrew a revolver from his waist and fired three fatal shots into the chest of thearchitect. After nine years and three long trials Thaw was aquitted(Lachetta 49).On the evening of June 25, 1906 not only did the city lose a great man, but theGarden lost it's founder and owner. The loss of Stanford White was not just thedownfall of the original Madison Square Garden, but also most of New York.Throughout Mr. White's life he created the architectural designs for over half ofthe buildings in the "original" New York. Many of his buildings have beenredesigned now. Back then Mr. White could take a piece of paper and a pen andcreate a masterpiece. His designs captured the hearts of thousands. His wisdomadded to the stability of the Garden as one of the cities most beautiful and welldesigned buildings. His presence in the late 1800's will always be rememberedby his gorgeous work making the city not just the state's masterpiece, but hisown (Silver 136-139). The financial and managerial skills by the people who took over afterStanford White were not adequate for the moving times. The Garden remainedin it's name sake site for 19 more years until it was torn down in 1925, financialreasons played a major part in the closing of the Garden. The huge arena thathad brought joy to hundreds of thousands was brought down to foreclosure bythe New York Life Insurance Co (Rosbrow 56). The residents of Madison Squareand fellow New Yorkers managed to raise 6 million dollars for the new Gardenaway from Madison Square. 6 million dollars in 1925 is alot of money, peopleobviously has a true idea of the worth the Garden had to the city as a landmarkand a social gathering place.The first Madison Square Garden was rich inmemories and tradition as Joe Humphries won that last fight on May 6, 1925(Wolfe 27). People cheered, but despite their cheers you could hear the echoesof tears as the place where the Garden originated was being left a vacantparking lot with no rememberence of the great sight that once stood there. "Asthe crowd streamed through the gates to their seats many of them wererecognized by Eddie Van Wart the head ticket master and by William Stillmanthe head usher for them times will never be the same" (Garden hears last roarof crowds NYT). Thanks to the community and supporters of the Old Madison SquareGarden, a new one was able to be put up at fiftieth street and Eighth avenue.This new arena mostly sposored by Tex Ricard was opened in time for theannual 6 day bike race in late December of 1926. This new arena was state ofthe art, including a hockey rink and over 20,000 seats in all(Jackson 122). Whencompleted this Garden was the most completed and advanced sructure in theworld. It included a hockey rink that gave New York Hockey fans a chance toenjoy the great winter sport. More great sporting events happened at this arenathan any other such as Rocky Marciano knocking out Joe Louis. Many otherevents that made this a worthwhile establishment until 1968. When the need fora new location moved this building to it's present location above Pennsylvaniastation. As of now the new Madison Square Garden stands as the city's lonesports arena. It houses the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks. It is asuperb arena in terms of technological advancement. They can change the iceto a wood floor for Basketball within 4 hours. This arena seats almost 25thousand people. This is the home of many great events besides sports(Lachetta 42). It's still the home of "the greatest show on earth" the name circusalong with concerts of every artist from Kenny G to Dave Matthews. It's a greatconvenient location from Long Island because it's easily accesible by train. Thiswas a need due to the growing popularity of leisure and sport in and around thecity. A more well suited location helped the attendence and financially sent theGarden soaring with funds to make renovations and improvements (Whyte 137).The New Madison Square Garden should be around for years to come. Like thefirst one it is a center of amusement and sport for thousands of people. Nomatter where the Garden goes it will always be loved and used as a conventioncenter. Though the new Garden is state of the art, times have changed andpeople are no longer in search of stability in terms of landmarks. Back when thefirst Garden arose new immagrants were looking for a place they could call thierown. Thousands of new citizens saw time flying past them. Now life is morecomplex and people have "more important" things to care about like new carsand raises. Now they go to the Garden on a saturday night and pay scalpershundred of dollars for tickets worth 20 bucks. Back then a common man, maybenew to this country could see the greatest show on earth, the circus for aquarter. What has happened to society. Instead of worrying about living inharmony and having fun, everything is about money. The first Garden wasn'tbuilt to make some man rich. It was built to bring a community together. To givethem something they could all share and have in common. To throw racism andinjustice in the garbage and let the people work hard for their money and be ableto have entertainment or meet people without wasting their entire pay check. The Old Madison Square Garden was a historic landmark and shouldnever have been torn down. The loss of this cultural center and New York'sfabulous cultural history is a tragedy. By them tearing it down all of the youngergeneration loses out on the historical background of what they see as the homeof the Knicks. It was rich in sport and good fortune and it was always the . new Gardenaway from Madison Square. 6 million dollars in 1925 is alot of money, peopleobviously has a true idea of the worth the Garden had to the city as a landmarkand a social gathering place.The. Square. A place for conventions,sporting events and other activities that the community can share. MadisonSquare was a lively part of New York City in the early 1900's. Adjacent fromBroadway. thinga true family place with many events to offer the different life styles. The place the Madison Square needed was Madison Square Garden, alandmark for the entire city to enjoy. The site of