Re: (rshsdepot) Lower New York City stations

["Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Steven Delibert <stevdel_@_prodigy.net>
To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net <rshsdepot@lists.railfan.net>
Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: (rshsdepot) Lower New York City stations



>
>- "first definite passenger depot" built at 27th St. and 4th Ave; when
>abandoned by the RR, it became pleasure resort "Gilmore's Garden", then was
>torn down for 1st Madison Sq Gdn

This is a little wrong..the first Madison Square Garden used the NH depot
building and sheds and probably the old NY&H depot as well, read on:
 ...From the book  "Madison Square Garden:10 Years of History"...Joseph
Durso 1879:

There is a neat old engraving showing horse wagons loading all sorts of
baggage destined for various inns and hotels ("Howard House", "Astor
House",etc.) all sorts of loading and running and falling even...  Across
the street is a view of the NY & NH RR Depot, the one with the Federal style
with the quare tower on the corner..behind it is the square shaped NY,
Harlem and Albany with the crenelated roof, the one where I mosrook a church
steeple for a "antenna" once in a different engraving...
The caption reads: "Barnum pitches his tent on the site of the New York &
New Haven Railroad depot on the west side of Fourth Avenue..."

In the text on that page:..

"Barnum's chief interest centered on the northeast corner of the square
(Madison Square), precisely on the old railroad shed where the New York &
Harlem Railroad used to stable its horses--which were required by cuty
ordinance to draw the railroad cars north to Thirty-second Street before
surrendering them to mechanical power" [steam I presume]

-From what I have read before the NH building was the one used for the third
location for Barnum's  (And last) American Museum in the city...I have to
assume the shed was used by both RR's for their horses....The official new
name for his museum/show was "the Monster Classical and Geological
Hippodrome." It says that it was "not a building, but a state of
mind."....The freight shed and stable of the NY & Harlem RR [for whatever
reason tehy usually say it was the Harlem although it seems to me it was
more the NH structure that BArnum used-northeats edge of square between 26th
and 27th between 4th (Park) and MAdison....

The Great Roman Hippodrome (the more popular name)..
 opened in the old RR structures on April 27, 1874

This first "Big Top" held 15,000 spectators.....by winter he headed south
and the lease went to a Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. He put in fountains and
gravel walks, azalias and statues and renamed it Gilmore's Garden

[By the way the site itself was said to have witnessed the first baseball
play-in the park-in c.1836 by Cartwright's Knickerbocker baseball club. Not
the first game which was played at Elysian Fields in Hoboken soon after]


Gilmore's Garden held revival meetings, temperance meetings, beauty
contests, flower exhibits, BArnum's circus when back in town, and the first
Westminster Kennel Show in 1877....And boxing..Gilmore's lease ran out in
1878 and  a WM Tileston took over with the dog show, a riding school,
archery range, lawn tennis and ice carnivls..

Commodore Vanderbilt died and son William reaserted the family's control
over the old railroad properties...He decided that the old railroad shed
would become an athletic center...he brought in the National Horse
Show....On May 31, 1879, Memorial Day the first Madison Square Garden opened
...most of these various Hippodromes and Gardens had the action in the old
freight shed/stable, but the pictures show the old NH station was still
attached to thje tent and rotunda of the first MSG...Although there are
pictures of the opening day in 1879 of the first MAdison Square Garden which
definitely have the 4 story square tower on the corner, so the NH depot
building was definitely part of, and the entrance to the sports palace...the
big sar at the Garden in the 1880's was Jumbo the elephant...Jumbo's life
ended in 1886 when hit by a train in St.Thomas, Ontario.....the Democratic
Convention was held there, even football games were played inside.....

This old New Haven depot was demolished in 1889..as to the old NY&HArlem, I
have no idea when it went down, maybe the same date?
This second Madison Square Garden closed after May 5, 1925.....The NY Life
Building went up in its place-this is the building north of Met Life
Building which was the tallest in world 1909-1912
The second Madison Square Garden , the famous one that Stanford White built
and died in...the Moorish MSG, opened on the original baseball
field/railroad station June 16,1890
>
>1846 - large depot at 32nd St and 4th Ave

Are there any pictures of this one, I never heard of a big depot here
before?
>
>1869 - 1st Grand Central

I think it was 1871 when all operations were moved north to GCT
>
>Steve Delibert
>

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #203
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