This 1930ish postcard shows what was then the “new” Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue and 49th Street.
It’s the third incarnation of New York’s iconic arena, and the first one located no where near Madison Square.
It moved here in 1925, and for the next four decades hosted boxing matches, circuses, rodeos, Billy Graham revivals, ice shows, and of course the Rangers and the Knicks.
Was this a good place to watch a game? It looks awfully cramped and crowded from outside.
In 1968 the Garden moved again, this time to its current home at 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue. In its place we have the office tower Worldwide Plaza, which looks strangely similar to the old MSG.
Some great old photos of the Garden and its very cool marquee can be found at Wired New York.
Tags: Knicks history, Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden Eighth Avenue, Madison Square Garden history, New York in the 1920s, New York Rangers, New York sports arenas, New York street, vintage postcards New York
Ephemeral New York 
March 4, 2013 at 3:21 pm |
that’s where i saw the circus!
March 4, 2013 at 4:16 pm |
I saw the circus there and also Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
March 4, 2013 at 8:33 pm |
See the Manchurian Candidate (with Sinatra) for the interior.
March 4, 2013 at 8:39 pm |
Cool, thanks!
March 7, 2013 at 1:04 am |
That iteration of Madison Square Garden took up nearly the entire block, as I remember. For years after they tore it down it was one big parking lot save for a single tenement at, I think, the corner of 9th and 50th.
January 16, 2014 at 7:16 am |
[…] The show is back at the Garden on February 10—one of only four events to be held at every incarnation of Madison Square Garden. […]
August 9, 2014 at 5:19 am |
[…] didn’t end his career though—he helped finance the creation of a new Madison Square Garden on 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, which opened in […]
September 21, 2016 at 5:03 am |
I have a question I cannot find the answer to and so I turn to Ephemeral New York. Why was the Madison Square Garden at 50th and Eighth torn down when it closed? Almost the entire block became a parking lot for 20 years. How was that profitable? Why was it torn down? Couldn’t they have sold it to someone? It must have cost a lot of money to tear it down. Strange. It just seems odd financially…
May 21, 2018 at 4:36 am |
[…] Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant, as it was officially called, opened its doors in 1935 on 49th Street, across the street from the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden. […]