Madison Square Garden (1879)
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| Full name | Madison Square Garden |
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| Location | New York City, New York |
| Coordinates | 40°44′34″N 73°59′08″W / 40.74278°N 73.98556°WCoordinates: 40°44′34″N 73°59′08″W / 40.74278°N 73.98556°W |
| Owner | William Kissam Vanderbilt |
| Operator | William Kissam Vanderbilt |
| Capacity | 10,000 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1874 |
| Opened | May 30, 1879 |
| Closed | 1890 |
| Demolished | 1890 |
Madison Square Garden was an arena in New York City located at East 26th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The first venue to use that name, it had a seating capacity of 10,000 spectators. It operated from 1879 to 1890, when it was replaced with a new building on the same site.
The building that became Madison Square Garden was originally the New York and Harlem Railroad passenger depot before being leased to P. T. Barnum when the depot moved uptown in 1871. Barnum converted it into an oval arena 270 feet (82 m) long, with seats and benches in banks, that he called the Great Roman Hippodrome where he presented circuses and other performances. The roofless building was also called Barnum's Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome and measured 420 feet (130 m) by 200 feet (61 m).
In 1876 the open-air arena was leased to band leader Patrick Gilmore, who renamed it Gilmore's Garden and presented flower shows, beauty contests, music concerts, temperance and revival meetings, walking marathons and the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, called at the time (1877) the "First Annual N.Y. Bench Show." Gilmore also presented boxing, but since competitive boxing matches were technically illegal at the time, he called them "exhibitions" or "illustrated lectures."
The next to lease the space was W. M. Tileston, who was an official of the dog show. He attempted to attract a more genteel crowd with tennis, a riding school and an ice carnival – the arena had one of the first indoor ice rinks in the United States.
After the death of Commodore Vanderbilt, who owned the site, his grandson William Kissam Vanderbilt took back control and announced the renaming of the arena to "Madison Square Garden" on May 31, 1879. Vanderbilt presented sporting events such as indoor track and field meets, a convention of Elks, the National Horse Show and more boxing, including some bouts featuring John L. Sullivan, who began a four-year series of exhibitions in July 1882, drawing over-capacity crowds. P.T. Barnum also used the Garden to exhibit Jumbo, the elephant he had bought from the London Zoo; he drew sufficient business to recover the $10,000 pricetag.
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