Madison Square, Manhattan : NYC Tourist Guide

Madison Square

Madison Square is a neighborhood on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered on a 6.8 acre (2.75 Hectare) public park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States and co-author of the United States Constitution.

The park is bounded by Madison Avenue (which starts at the park's southeast corner), 23rd Street, 26th Street, Fifth Avenue, and a diagonal section of Broadway. Immediately southwest of the park is the Flatiron Building, one of the oldest of the original New York skyscrapers, and just to its east is the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower at 1 Madison Avenue (1909), the tallest building in the world until 1913, when the Woolworth Building was completed. The park is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The square was made famous around the world by Madison Square Garden. The "garden" had nothing to do with flowers. It was a sports arena located near the square, at 26th Street and Madison Avenue, designed by the noted Beaux-Arts architect Stanford White. The square was once known as "Diana's little wooded park" in reference to the bronze statue of the Roman goddess atop the tower of White's arena. When the arena moved to a new building at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in 1925 it kept its old name. (Madison Square Garden, now in its fourth incarnation, is located atop Penn Station at Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets).