Almost one hundred and seventy years have passed since the park's inauguration and people still cannot understand what relation it bore to the gentleman whose name it carries today: James Madison, Jr. - fourth president of the United States. In fact, the president had no physical or spiritual connection to the park whatsoever, nor even to the land on which it was created: he never lived there, he never stayed there, he did not own it, he probably did not even have an idea that it existed and he surely was not aware that it had been named after him because he died about ten years before the park was opened to the public.
Like many areas in New York that were transformed into parks, such as Bryant Park on 42nd Street and Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, the land on which Madison Square Park was developed had also been a paupers' grave in the beginning. In the early 19th century the US Army set up an arsenal in the area with barracks and a parade ground. In 1839 an officer by the name of William "Corporal" Thomson built a roadhouse on what today is the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street and named it Madison Cottage, after the former president. Several years later the cottage was demolished and substituted first with a hippodrome and then with the luxurious Fifth Avenue Hotel, the first in the city to have elevators, fireplaces in each room and private bathrooms. The cottage's name was subsequently used for Madison Avenue, which today starts on 23rd Street and runs north, and for the park, which was created in 1847. By then the Madison Square neighborhood, along with the Gramercy Park District nearby, was the ritziest area in town. American and European bluebloods settled the area, seeking more space and tranquility, since the downtown neighborhoods were becoming congested and industrialized.
In 1876 Madison Square Park hosted a large celebration honoring the centennial of America's Declaration of Independence. For the following six years the torch and arm of the Statue of Liberty were exhibited in the park with the intention of raising money for building the pedestal of the gigantic statue. The original Madison Square Garden also stood in the park on 26th Street. There were actually two gardens - the first, an open-air structure built in 1876 and demolished in 1890, was an arena used for concerts, flower shows, dog shows, beauty contests and walking marathons; the second, built on the ruins of the first, was bigger and more sophisticated architecturally, housing events such as orchestral performances, operas, circuses, as well as boxing matches and later even football games.
With the turn of the century the park was hosting more and more popular events, designed to attract large crowds, which meant that the surrounding area was becoming more commercial and democratic, thus pushing the elite farther uptown. In 1908 the New York Herald newspaper set up a giant searchlight to signal the results of the presidential elections and 1912 the first illuminated Christmas tree was placed in the park. Important skyscrapers such as the Flatiron Building, the Met Life Tower, the Metropolitan Life North Building and the New York Life Building had been built around the park, making it a vital business zone.
In the park itself there are several monuments dedicated to prominent Americans: James Farragut, the first rear admiral, vice admiral and admiral of the US Navy; William H. Seward, the Secretary of State who purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867; and the 21st US President Chester A. Arthur, whose only claim to fame lay in the sensational fact that he succeeded America's second assassinated president, James Garfield.
Today Madison Square Park is a great place to eat a sandwich and absorb the dynamics of the world's fastest changing city.