West:
212 (corner):
This was the site of Dodworth Studios, where Teddy
Roosevelt took dance lessons as a boy. In 1876
Delmonico's, at the time the most
fashionable restaurant in New York, moved here. The women's
organization Sorosis met in an upstairs room.
When Delmonico's moved uptown in 1899, it became
Cafe Martin, where on June 25, 1906 architect
Sanford White had his last meal before being shot
at his Madison Square Garden. This building
went up in 1913; the FX cable channel was
here in the 1990s.
210: Dramatic bay windows and over-the-top
detailing mark the Cross Chambers Building,
a 1901 project of John B. Snook & Sons.
Houses Dewey's Flatiron, notable
neighborhood restaurant; Used to be the flagship
store of Mark Cross.
208: Was Yedsonic electronics
206: Memories of New York,
elaborate souvenir shop. On the 3rd floor is
Urban Angler.
204:
Pentagram,
international design company that has done work for
the Public Theater, the Mesa Grill
and the New York Times Magazine,
among other clients. Used to be MK, a
1980s nightclub where
Moby played his first
live electronic gig in 1989.
202 (corner): Commonwealth Criterion, manufacturer
of Christmas decorations, is part of the
Christmas District. The site of Worth House, a hotel that
by 1900 housed the Berlitz School of Languages. The
present building, dating to 1918, was the flagship store
(with science museum) of the
A.C. Gilbert Company, a toy company that
made the Erector set, radioactive chemistry sets and American Flyer
model trains.
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Worth Square
Marks the grave of Gen.
William Jenkins Worth, namesake of Ft. Worth, Texas and
downtown's Worth Street. After fighting in the War of 1812, he
became commandant of cadets at West Point. During the Seminole Wars,
he pioneered the targeting of civilian populations and the use of
starvation as a tool of warfare. Fighting in the Mexican-American
War, he led the capture of Mexico City, and was given command of the
newly conquered terriories of Texas and New Mexico. He died of
cholera in San Antonio in 1849, and was buried here in 1857.
Rectangular structure leads to Water Tunnel No. 1, carrying
water from Catskills.
In 1899, an arch made of wood and plaster was erected over
5th Avenue between 25th and 24th streets to celebrate
Admiral George Dewey's destruction of the Spanish fleet in
Manilla Bay. Only Dewey's rapid fall in popularity prevented it
from being replaced with a permanent stone version.
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200 (corner): International Toy Center, since 1925 center of
U.S. toy business; note toy and holiday displays. The LA Cafe
is on the ground floor. On the corner, you can still make out
a sign for the Garfield National Bank, which was around from
1881-1929 before merging with the Chase National Bank. In The Sweet Smell of Success,
it serves as the offices of The New York Globe,
J.J. Hunsecker's newspaper.
Replaced the Fifth Avenue Hotel (1858-1908), once the most exclusive
hotel in NYC; presidents Grant and Arthur, as well as the Prince of
Wales, stayed here. It was a gathering place for fat cats like Boss Tweed,
Jay Gould, Jim Fisk and Commodore Vanderbilt, who would would trade
stocks here after hours. A Republican bastion, it was
here that the Democrats were first described as the party of "rum,
Romanism and rebellion." But it was also a hangout for cultural
figures like Mark Twain, O. Henry, Edwin Booth, William Cullen Bryant
and Stanford White. It was used as the setting of Gore Vidal’s 1876.
Earlier on this site was Franconi's Hippodrome (1852-59);
before
that was Corporal Thompson's Madison Cottage, a roadhouse described
by the New York Herald as "one of the most agreeable spots for an
afternoon's lounge in the suburbs of our city." It had been
the house of John Horn, who used to own what is now Madison Square Park.
The sidewalk clock, from 1909, was a once common sight in the
pre-wristwatch era.
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East:
Madison Square Park
The 1807 plan set aside 240 acres in this
vicinity as The Parade, to be used for military training.
In that same year, the U.S. Arsenal was
built here to defend the strategic
intersection of the Bloomingdale Road
(now Broadway) and the Eastern Post Road.
By 1814, when the park was named Madison Square
after the then-current president, it had been reduced to 90 acres.
In 1847, when Madison Square Park was opened, less than seven acres remained.
The park, which was laid out in its current form in 1870, was the center of New York society in the 1860s and '70s. "The vicinity of Madison Square
is the brightest, prettiest and liveliest portion of the great city," James McCabe wrote in 1872.
In July 1901, an attempt to turn seating in the
park into a for-profit concession sparked rioting.
The park provides a setting for O. Henry short stories like
"The Cop and the Anthem" and "The Sparrows in Madison Square").
The U.S. Arsenal was converted by
1824 to the House of Refuge of the
Society for the Reformation of
Juvenile Delinquents--the first
such institution in the country.
Admiral Farragut Memorial
1881 commemoration of David Glasgow Farragut, Civil War
fleet commander, best remembered for his "damn the
torpedoes, full speed ahead" line. Sculpture by
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, pedestal by Stanford White.
Considered to be the first use of Art Nouveau in U.S.
Eternal Light
World War I memorial flagpole (1918-23),
said to symbolize the eternal peace
produced by the "War to End All Wars."
When Charles Lindbergh was given a parade
in 1927--attended by an estimated 4 million
spectators--he stopped here to lay a wreath.
William Seward Statue
Statue of William Seward (1801-72);
an early abolitionist who became NY governor
(1838-42) and a U.S. senator (1848-61), he served as secretary
of state under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He's most
remembered for buying Alaska from Russia for $7 million in 1867.
In 1876, sculptor
Randolph Rogers, after being stiffed on his commission,
reused a cast of Lincoln's body to make the statue
cheaply; Seward was actually a short man with a big head.
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