A Guide to Historic New York City Neighborhoods M ADISON S QUARE N O RT H MANHATTAN The Historic Districts Council is New York’s citywide advocate for historic buildings and neighborhoods. The Six to Celebrate program annually identifies six historic New York City neighborhoods that merit preservation as priorities for HDC’s advocacy and consultation over a yearlong period. The six, chosen from applications submitted by community organizations, are selected on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area, the level of threat to the neighborhood, the strength and willingness of the local advocates, and the potential for HDC’s preservation support to be meaningful. HDC works with these neighborhood partners to set and reach preservation goals through strategic planning, advocacy, outreach, programs and publicity. The core belief of the Historic Districts Council is that preservation and enhancement of New York City’s historic resources—its neighborhoods, buildings, parks and public spaces— are central to the continued success of the city. The Historic Districts Council works to ensure the preservation of these resources and uphold the New York City Landmarks Law and to further the preservation ethic. This mission is accomplished through ongoing programs of assistance to more than 500 community and neighborhood groups and through public-policy initiatives, publications, educational outreach and sponsorship of community events. Support is provided in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by City Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Inez Dickens, Matthieu Eugene, Daniel Garodnick, Vincent Gentile, Corey Johnson, Ben Kallos, Stephen Levin, Mark Levine, and Rosie Mendez. 232 East 11th Street, New York, NY 10003 tel 212-614-9107 fax 212-614-9127 e-mail [email protected] www.hdc.org 6tocelebrate.org Copyright © 2015 by Historic Districts Council MADISON SQUARE NORTH Today’s Madison Square North neighborhood reflects successive waves of development, the earliest dating to the year Madison Square Park was created—1847. Until very recently, the neighborhood comprised almost exclusively buildings that pre-date 1930. From the park’s opening through the 1920s, Madison Square North evolved from being a fashionable residential enclave to an entertainment district of hotels, clubs, restaurants and theaters, to a commercial hub of offices and mercantile loft buildings. Examples of each are still prominent today, often in startling juxtaposition. The 19th century saw a northward development trend, as new residential neighborhoods were established in response to growing commerce to the south. This pattern repeated itself numerous times up the length of Manhattan. From roughly 1850 to 1865, Madison Square North was fashionable with the city’s elite. Such boldface families as the Stokes, Livingstons, Vanderbilts, and Stewarts (of A.T. Stewart department store fame) were residents. Rowhouse construction, largely built in the popular Italianate style, began first along Broadway and spread to the side streets. Extant rowhouses from this period include two on West 24th Street (site #2) and four on West 29th Street (site #8). After the Civil War, the neighborhood became host to a number of theaters, restaurants, men’s clubs and hotels. The trailblazer in the latter category was the Fifth Avenue Hotel, completed in 1858 on the northwest corner of 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. The hotel was a social, cultural and political hub until its closure in 1908, at which point it was replaced by the commercial structure at 200 Fifth Avenue. Many hotels also functioned as “bachelor flats” or “apartment hotels” for extended stays. One of the city’s first apartment houses, constructed in 1872 after designs by the noted New York architect George B. Post, still stands at 251 Fifth Avenue. The prevalence of entertainment and commercial ventures on Broadway made it a bustling night-life district. Thus, beginning in the 1890s, Broadway from about 13th to 45th Street became one of the first thoroughfares to be illuminated by electric street lamps and billboards, leading to its lasting moniker “The Great White Way.” By the 1890s and early 1900s, industries including photography, architecture, construction and banking planted roots in the area, constructing commercial high-rises designed in styles such as Gothic Revival, Beaux-Arts and Art Deco. Many of these buildings were also constructed for the wholesale garment industry to initially support the Ladies’ Mile shopping district to the south, which, until they moved to Herald Square in the early 1900s, was home to the R. H. Macy & Co. and B. Altman & Co. department stores. The neighborhood’s growth was spurred on by nationwide industrial trends for ready-to-wear clothing, and later, wholesale household décor. This period of prolific development left a lasting impact, as mercantile loft buildings remain the area’s architectural hallmark. In 2001, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Madison Square North Historic District, 96 buildings from roughly 25th to 29th Streets between Sixth and Madison Avenues. Community members and preservationists are advocating for an extension to the district, to encompass roughly 374 buildings from 23rd to 34th Streets and Sixth to Park Avenues. This area includes the surviving buildings of Tin Pan Alley on West 28th Street (site #5), where the American popular music publishing industry was headquartered from roughly 1890 to 1910. 1 — Historic Districts Council — Madison Square North 1 MADISON SQUARE PARK (1847; redesigned by Ignatz Pilat and William Grant, 1870) Designated a public space in the first city charter of 1686, the area of Madison Square Park was enlarged and changed hands several times throughout the 18th century for use as farmland. In 1780, the city reacquired 37 of its acres, which it then subdivided. Within the current confines of the park, the city constructed an arsenal in 1807 and designated a 44-block area, from the present day 23rd to 34th Streets and Third to Seventh Avenues, as a military parade ground. (It was later reduced in size.) The arsenal and parade provided a key military post for maneuvers and drills during the War of 1812. In 1814, the parade ground was renamed Madison Square in honor of James Madison, the then President of the United States. After the park’s opening in 1847, magnificent residences and hotels cropped up along the park and the neighborhood became the city’s most elite address. Just west of the park, a small triangular parcel was created between 24th and 25th Streets where Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect. The lot became an extension of Madison Square Park, and in 1857, a 51-foot granite obelisk designed by James Goodwin Batterson was erected to honor General William Jenkins Worth, for whom Fort Worth, Texas, and Worth Street in Lower Manhattan are named. Statues of several other notable men can be found within the park: William H. Seward (Randolph Rogers, 1876), Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, 1881), Roscoe Conkling (John Quincey Adams Ward, 1893) and Chester Alan Arthur (George Bissell, 1898). When the city’s first Department of Public Parks was established in 1870, the park was redesigned with formal and picturesque components, including walkways, open lawns and a large circular fountain at the south end. The park retains this general layout today, after a comprehensive restoration of the park was completed in 2001. LEGEND OF DESIGNATIONS National Historic Landmark: NHL National Register of Historic Places—District: NR-D National Register of Historic Places —Property: NR-P New York City Historic District: NYC HD New York City Individual Landmark: NYC IL New York City Interior Landmark: NYC INL 2 — Historic Districts Council — Madison Square North Immediately outside the park, on the southwest corner of 26th Street and Madison Avenue, once sat one of the city’s most dazzling entertainment venues—Madison Square Garden. The site was initially developed in 1845 as a passenger depot for Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York and Harlem Railroad. After the construction of the first Grand Central Depot uptown in 1870, P. T. Barnum leased the space and converted it into his famous “Hippodrome,” the site of his first circus performances beginning in 1873. In 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s son William inherited the property and resumed its operation under the name “Madison Square Garden.” Vanderbilt expanded the complex with a grand new structure designed in the Spanish Revival style by McKim, Mead and White (1889- 90). Stanford White, who designed the new Madison Square Garden and had an apartment in its tower, was murdered by millionaire Harry Thaw during a theatrical performance on the building’s roof garden theater on June 25, 1906. White, a society man and famous architect, once had an affair with Thaw’s wife, the actress and showgirl Evelyn Nesbit. Thaw’s murder trial was covered sensationally in the press, and was dubbed the “Trial of the Century.” Due to financial deficits, Madison Square Garden moved uptown (first to 50th Street and Eighth Avenue and then to its present home at 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue), and the building was razed in 1925. In 1928, Cass Gilbert’s New York Life Insurance Building was constructed on the site. 2 WEST 24TH STREET between Sixth and Fifth Avenues The south side of this block is within the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, while the north side remains unprotected. Walking west toward Sixth Avenue, there are two 1850s rowhouses that stand as reminders of the neighborhood’s early residential character. Number 7 (c. 1857-58) and number 17 (c. 1850-51) were designed in the Italianate style popular at that time. The Renaissance Revival style loft building at number 49 (Hill & Stout, 1908) features interesting brick coloration and moldings.