NoMad
Encyclopedia
NoMad is a neighborhood centered around the Madison Square North Historic District
in the borough of Manhattan
in New York City
.
The name NoMad, which has been in use since 1999, is derived from the area’s location north and west of Madison Square Park. The neighborhood extends roughly from 25th Street to 30th Street between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Lexington Avenue. NoMad is bounded on the west by Chelsea
, on the northwest by Midtown South
, on the northeast by Murray Hill
on the east by Rose Hill
, and on the south by the Flatiron District. It encompasses Little India, aka "Curry Hill", as well as a variety of businesses of all sizes in landmarked office buildings. NoMad is part of New York City's Manhattan Community Board 5
.
and 26th Streets. Formerly a military parade ground that to this day serves as the starting point for the city's annual Veterans Day
Parade, Madison Square Park and the surrounding area have undergone a number of changes since pre-Revolutionary War days, serving at various times as a potter’s field, an army arsenal
and a facility for juvenile delinquents.
New Yorkers began establishing residences around the park in the mid-nineteenth century. Private brownstone dwellings and mansions springing up around the perimeter of the park soon boasted such respected, well-to-do families as the Haights, Stokeses, Scheifflins, Wolfes, and Barlows. Leonard and Clara Jerome, the grandparents of Winston Churchill
, lived at 41 East 26th Street. The Jerome Mansion
later became the clubhouse of the Union League Club of New York
(its second location), the University Club
and, finally, the Manhattan Club, birthplace of the Manhattan cocktail
and congregating place of such famous Democrats as Franklin D. Roosevelt
, Grover Cleveland
and Al Smith
. The mansion was demolished in 1967 and was replaced in 1974 by the Merchandise Mart
, which also extends onto the site of the adjacent Madison Square Hotel, where actors Henry Fonda
and James Stewart
roomed in the 1930s.
The famous families in the area nurtured the spiritual life of the neighborhood, founding such landmark houses of worship as the Church of the Transfiguration (the "Little Church Around the Corner
"), Trinity Chapel (site of the wedding between writer Edith Newbold Jones and Edward Wharton and now the home of the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava) and Marble Collegiate Church
.
The area became a meeting place for the Gilded Age
elite, and a late-nineteenth century mecca for shoppers, tourists and after-theater restaurant patrons. A list of celebrities who ate at Delmonico's is a who’s who of the day, including Diamond Jim Brady, Mark Twain
, Jenny Lind
, Lillian Russell
, Charles Dickens
, Oscar Wilde
, J.P. Morgan, James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
, Walter Scott
, Edward VII of the United Kingdom
(then the Prince of Wales), and Napoleon III of France.
A commercial boom followed with the growth of hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and office buildings, many of which are still standing. By the late nineteenth century, business activity began to eclipse the residential scene around the park, and the area along Broadway above the park began to be subsumed into the Tenderloin
, an entertainment-and-vice red-light district
full of nightclub
s, saloon
s, bordellos, gambling casinos
, dance hall
s and "clip joints". At about this time, on August 14, 1894, the world's first kinetoscope
parlor opened in a former shoe store at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. For 25 cents, patrons could stand and watch a short film through a shaded "peephole" on William Dickson's device. The store had 10 of these machines, and netted $120 for its opening day.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the area around 28th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) was dubbed Tin Pan Alley
thanks to the collection of music publishers and songwriters there who dominated the American commercial music world of the time. Around the same time, the 1913 Armory Show
, which took place at the 69th Regiment Armory
on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets, was a seminal event in the history of Modern Art
.
The neighborhood deteriorated somewhat during the mid- and late-twentieth century. Tee-shirt, luggage, perfume and jewelry wholesalers began lining the storefronts along Broadway
from Madison Square to Herald Square
, and wholesalers continue to dominate that stretch. By the second half of the twentieth century, Madison Square Park was suffering from neglect and petty crime. The massive 2001 park restoration project, spearheaded by the Madison Square Park Conservancy spurred a transformation of the neighborhoods around the park – the Flatiron District, Rose Hill
and NoMad – from primarily commercial to places attractive for residences, upscale businesses and trendy restaurants and nightspots.
, the Gift Building, which has been converted to a luxury condominium, and the Toy Center
, which has been converted to an office complex.
Designed in 1904 by Stanford White as the prestigious Colony Club for socialites, the building at 120 Madison Avenue has been occupied since 1963 by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
. Long before the Academy began training its young hopefuls in the NoMad area, the Madison Square Theater opened in 1880. Boasting the first electric footlights and a backstage double-decker elevator, the theater also provided an early air-conditioning system.
Along Broadway, the Townsend (1896) and St. James (1896) were the tallest buildings in New York for a short while, and remain historic landmarks. Slightly up the street, the Baudouine Building at 28th Street was heavily decorated with escutcheons of anthemions with lion heads over many windows. At the same corner, the Johnston Building (soon to be the Hotel NoMad) was built in 1900 and faced in all limestone with beautiful exterior decoration. One block up, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
’s grandfather built a classically designed loft building, next to the Breslin.
The luxurious Fifth Avenue Hotel
, completed in 1859 by Amos R. Eno, whose gleaming white-marble building, housing 100 apartment suites, contained a few startling firsts, such as private bathrooms, elevators and a fourth meal, or "late supper", and was a popular meeting place for politicians, brokers and speculators. Initially dubbed "Eno’s Folly" for its opulence and location at the far uptown edge of the city – the site had previously been an inn where travellers leaving the city opr returning to it could get a meal or lodging before contuning their trip. The hotel stood between 23rd and 24th Streets facing Madison Square, where the Toy Center South stands today.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel stood without serious competition for a decade, but by the 1870s, numerous hotels catering to much the same clientele had opened in the area, including the Hoffman House (24th Street), the Victoria (27th Street), the Gilsey House
(29th Street), whose building still stands, the Grand (31st Street), also still standing – both were converted for residential use – and the Brunswick.
The Brunswick, at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue, was the hotel favored by the horsey set. The male-only New York Coaching Club, established in 1875 by Col. Delancey Astor Kane and William Jay
, was headquartered there, and elevated "four-in-hand" carriage riding to an art form. Holding the reins of all four horses in one fist, the drivers ("whips") guided their horses from the Brunswick to the carriage drives in Central Park and staged parades twice a year.
The St. James Hotel at Broadway and 26th Street, where the St. James Building now stands, was built in 1874 to accommodate a stylish crowd. With its 30 parlors, bar, cigar stand, barber shop, dining room and full-service amenities, the hotel served the needs of typical mid- to late-nineteenth century business and upscale clientele.
Known since 1987 as the Carlton, the Hotel Seville, named for the original investor Maitland E. Graves’ infatuation with the Spanish city, was designed by Harry Allen Jacobs, and opened its doors on East 29th Street and Madison Avenue in 1904, months before the unveiling of the city’s first subway. Renovated and transformed at a cost of $60 million more than a century later by David Rockwell
, the hotel’s "Tiffany-style glass skylight" on the mezzanine was discovered under layers of paint “used to deter air raids during World War II.”
The Breslin Hotel, built in 1904, was transformed in 2009 into the Ace Hotel, a 300-room hotel whose restaurant has attracted a trendy crowd. Slated to open in 2011, the NoMaD Hotel at 28th Street and Broadway, will occupy the Johnston Building, a landmark 1900 French Renaissance limestone space. The Gershwin Hotel, on East 27th Street, and named after George Gershwin
, has a unique facade, a combination of red paint and whimsical decorative touches.
Named for one of New York’s most oldest families, the 19-floor Gansevoort Park, is planned to open at Park Avenue and 29th Street, complete with a "glass column containing light-emitting diodes" that change color. Rounding out the host of boutique hotels in and around NoMad is Hotel Thirty Thirty, aptly located at 30 East 30 Street.
, the New York Comedy Club and Tada! Youth Theater, and is also a center for antique galleries and one of the city’s largest collections of weekend flea markets. Nightspots and clubs include the Breslin Lobby Bar, Jay Z’s 40/40, the rooftop bar at 230 Fifth Avenue, Gstaad, Hillstone’s, and the Park Avenue Country Club.
Madison Square North Historic District
The Madison Square North Historic District is in Manhattan, New York City, and was created on June 26, 2001 by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.Lying north and west of Madison Square Park, the district's boundaries are irregular...
in the borough of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The name NoMad, which has been in use since 1999, is derived from the area’s location north and west of Madison Square Park. The neighborhood extends roughly from 25th Street to 30th Street between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Lexington Avenue. NoMad is bounded on the west by Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, on the northwest by Midtown South
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, on the northeast by Murray Hill
Murray Hill, Manhattan
Murray Hill is a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood in New York City, USA. Around 1987 many real estate promoters of the neighborhood and newer residents described the boundaries as within East 34th Street, East 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and the East River; in 1999, Frank P...
on the east by Rose Hill
Rose Hill, Manhattan
Rose Hill is a recently-revived name for a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by 25th Street and 30th Street on the south and north, and by Third Avenue and Madison or Fifth Avenue on the east and west...
, and on the south by the Flatiron District. It encompasses Little India, aka "Curry Hill", as well as a variety of businesses of all sizes in landmarked office buildings. NoMad is part of New York City's Manhattan Community Board 5
Manhattan Community Board 5
Manhattan Community Board 5 is a local government unit of New York City, New York in the United States. It encompasses Midtown, Times Square, most of the Theatre District, the Diamond District, the Garment District, Herald Square, Koreatown, NoMad, Murray Hill and the Flatiron District, all in the...
.
History
NoMad's early history is closely aligned with that of Madison Square Park, which has been a public space since 1686. The park extends from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue between 23rd23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
and 26th Streets. Formerly a military parade ground that to this day serves as the starting point for the city's annual Veterans Day
Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark...
Parade, Madison Square Park and the surrounding area have undergone a number of changes since pre-Revolutionary War days, serving at various times as a potter’s field, an army arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
and a facility for juvenile delinquents.
New Yorkers began establishing residences around the park in the mid-nineteenth century. Private brownstone dwellings and mansions springing up around the perimeter of the park soon boasted such respected, well-to-do families as the Haights, Stokeses, Scheifflins, Wolfes, and Barlows. Leonard and Clara Jerome, the grandparents of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, lived at 41 East 26th Street. The Jerome Mansion
Jerome Mansion
The Jerome Mansion was the home of financier Leonard Jerome, one of the richest and most influential men in New York City in the middle- to late-19th century, and a frequent business partner of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The mansion was located on the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue,...
later became the clubhouse of the Union League Club of New York
Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York is a private social club in New York City. Its fourth and current clubhouse, which opened on February 2, 1931, is a building designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris, III, located at 38 East 37th Street between Madison and Park Avenue in the Murray Hill section of...
(its second location), the University Club
University Club
The University Club of New York is a private social club located at 1 West 54th Street at Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York, NY. It received its charter in 1865, but the origins date back to the autumn of 1861 when a group of college friends, principally Yale alumni, founded the club hoping to...
and, finally, the Manhattan Club, birthplace of the Manhattan cocktail
Manhattan (cocktail)
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. Commonly used whiskeys include rye , Canadian whisky , bourbon, blended whiskey and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is often stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass, where it is garnished with a Maraschino cherry...
and congregating place of such famous Democrats as Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
. The mansion was demolished in 1967 and was replaced in 1974 by the Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart
When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Merch Mart, located in the Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space. Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors...
, which also extends onto the site of the adjacent Madison Square Hotel, where actors Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
roomed in the 1930s.
The famous families in the area nurtured the spiritual life of the neighborhood, founding such landmark houses of worship as the Church of the Transfiguration (the "Little Church Around the Corner
Little Church Around the Corner
The Church of the Transfiguration, also known as the Little Church Around the Corner, is an Episcopal parish church located at 1 East 29th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The congregation was founded in 1848 by the Rev. Dr...
"), Trinity Chapel (site of the wedding between writer Edith Newbold Jones and Edward Wharton and now the home of the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava) and Marble Collegiate Church
Marble Collegiate Church
The Marble Collegiate Church, founded in 1628, is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregation in North America. The congregation, which is part of the Reformed Church in America, is now located at 272 Fifth Avenue at the corner of West 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan,...
.
The area became a meeting place for the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
elite, and a late-nineteenth century mecca for shoppers, tourists and after-theater restaurant patrons. A list of celebrities who ate at Delmonico's is a who’s who of the day, including Diamond Jim Brady, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
, Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, J.P. Morgan, James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was publisher of the New York Herald, founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett, Sr., who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father....
, Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
, Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
(then the Prince of Wales), and Napoleon III of France.
A commercial boom followed with the growth of hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and office buildings, many of which are still standing. By the late nineteenth century, business activity began to eclipse the residential scene around the park, and the area along Broadway above the park began to be subsumed into the Tenderloin
Tenderloin, Manhattan
The Tenderloin was an entertainment and red-light district in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, an entertainment-and-vice red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
full of nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s, saloon
Saloon
Saloon may refer to:* Saloon , a style of car body.* Saloon , a musical group.* Western saloon, a historical style of American bar.* Bar , a venue for alcoholic beverage consumption....
s, bordellos, gambling casinos
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, dance hall
Dance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub...
s and "clip joints". At about this time, on August 14, 1894, the world's first kinetoscope
Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
parlor opened in a former shoe store at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. For 25 cents, patrons could stand and watch a short film through a shaded "peephole" on William Dickson's device. The store had 10 of these machines, and netted $120 for its opening day.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the area around 28th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) was dubbed Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
thanks to the collection of music publishers and songwriters there who dominated the American commercial music world of the time. Around the same time, the 1913 Armory Show
Armory Show
Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...
, which took place at the 69th Regiment Armory
69th Regiment Armory
The 69th Regiment Armory located at 68 Lexington Avenue between East 25th and 26th Streets in Manhattan, New York City is a historical building which began construction in 1904 and was completed in 1906. The building is still used to house the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment, as well as for the...
on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets, was a seminal event in the history of Modern Art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
.
The neighborhood deteriorated somewhat during the mid- and late-twentieth century. Tee-shirt, luggage, perfume and jewelry wholesalers began lining the storefronts along Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
from Madison Square to Herald Square
Herald Square
Herald Square is formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue and 34th Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Named for the New York Herald, a now-defunct newspaper formerly headquartered there, it also gives its name to the surrounding area...
, and wholesalers continue to dominate that stretch. By the second half of the twentieth century, Madison Square Park was suffering from neglect and petty crime. The massive 2001 park restoration project, spearheaded by the Madison Square Park Conservancy spurred a transformation of the neighborhoods around the park – the Flatiron District, Rose Hill
Rose Hill, Manhattan
Rose Hill is a recently-revived name for a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by 25th Street and 30th Street on the south and north, and by Third Avenue and Madison or Fifth Avenue on the east and west...
and NoMad – from primarily commercial to places attractive for residences, upscale businesses and trendy restaurants and nightspots.
Notable persons
- Buried under Worth Square at the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, West 24th and West 25th Street is Mexican War hero Major General William Jenkins Worth, for whom Fort Worth, TexasFort Worth, TexasFort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
was named.
- Roscoe ConklingRoscoe ConklingRoscoe Conkling was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and the last person to refuse a U.S. Supreme Court appointment after he had...
, whose statue stands at the southeast corner of Madison Square Park, was a kingmaker in the Republican Party in the last half of the nineteenth century and is closely associated with the Fifth Avenue HotelFifth Avenue HotelThe Fifth Avenue Hotel was a former luxury hotel located at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City, New York from 1859 to 1908. It occupied the full Fifth Avenue frontage between 23rd Street and 24th Street, at the southwest corner of Madison Square in the borough of Manhattan.- Site and construction...
and political scandals during the James A. Garfield and Chester Alan Arthur administrations.
- Stanford WhiteStanford WhiteStanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
, partner in the respected architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, designed the magnificent Madison Square GardenMadison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, which stood from 1890–1925 between 26th and 27th Streets at Madison Avenue on the north corner of Madison Square Park. Featuring the largest amphitheater in the US, the building’s tower contained White’s apartment and love nest topped by a scantily draped statue of Diana. There, he entertained Evelyn Nesbit ThawEvelyn NesbitEvelyn Nesbit was an American artists' model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry Kendall Thaw.-Early life:...
, one of the Garden’s rooftop Floradora Girls. In a jealous rage, her husband, Harry Thaw, shot White in the middle of a musical production on the roof. Six years into the twentieth century, the media was touting the trial of the murderer of Stanford White, one of the country’s most prolific architects and womanizers, as "The Trial of the Century."
- Nikola TeslaNikola TeslaNikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
, who lived in the Radio Wave Building on 27th Street between Broadway and Sixth, is renowned today as the leading electrical engineer of his time. Tesla developed AC current, the radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, power transmissionPower transmissionPower transmission is the movement of energy from its place of generation to a location where it is applied to performing useful work.Power is defined formally as units of energy per unit time...
techniques and the first roboticsRoboticsRobotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
. His demonstration of remotely controlled boats at Madison Square Garden was a sensation in 1898. The craft alarmed those in the crowd who saw it and who claimed it to be everything from magic and telepathy to being piloted by a trained monkey hidden inside.
Architecture
Among the notable buildings in the area are New York Life BuildingNew York Life Building
The New York Life Insurance Building, New York, located at 51 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, across from Madison Square Park, is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company.- History :...
, the Gift Building, which has been converted to a luxury condominium, and the Toy Center
Toy Center
The Toy Center, also known as the International Toy Center, is a complex of buildings in the New York City borough of Manhattan that for many years has been a hub for toy manufacturers and distributors in the United States. It consists of two buildings located between 23rd Street and 25th Street...
, which has been converted to an office complex.
Designed in 1904 by Stanford White as the prestigious Colony Club for socialites, the building at 120 Madison Avenue has been occupied since 1963 by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
. Long before the Academy began training its young hopefuls in the NoMad area, the Madison Square Theater opened in 1880. Boasting the first electric footlights and a backstage double-decker elevator, the theater also provided an early air-conditioning system.
Along Broadway, the Townsend (1896) and St. James (1896) were the tallest buildings in New York for a short while, and remain historic landmarks. Slightly up the street, the Baudouine Building at 28th Street was heavily decorated with escutcheons of anthemions with lion heads over many windows. At the same corner, the Johnston Building (soon to be the Hotel NoMad) was built in 1900 and faced in all limestone with beautiful exterior decoration. One block up, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
’s grandfather built a classically designed loft building, next to the Breslin.
Hotels past and present
NoMad was once home to some of New York’s most luxurious hotels, and the area has recently seen the development of new, imaginative boutique hotels.The luxurious Fifth Avenue Hotel
Fifth Avenue Hotel
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was a former luxury hotel located at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City, New York from 1859 to 1908. It occupied the full Fifth Avenue frontage between 23rd Street and 24th Street, at the southwest corner of Madison Square in the borough of Manhattan.- Site and construction...
, completed in 1859 by Amos R. Eno, whose gleaming white-marble building, housing 100 apartment suites, contained a few startling firsts, such as private bathrooms, elevators and a fourth meal, or "late supper", and was a popular meeting place for politicians, brokers and speculators. Initially dubbed "Eno’s Folly" for its opulence and location at the far uptown edge of the city – the site had previously been an inn where travellers leaving the city opr returning to it could get a meal or lodging before contuning their trip. The hotel stood between 23rd and 24th Streets facing Madison Square, where the Toy Center South stands today.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel stood without serious competition for a decade, but by the 1870s, numerous hotels catering to much the same clientele had opened in the area, including the Hoffman House (24th Street), the Victoria (27th Street), the Gilsey House
Gilsey House
Gilsey House is a former eight-story 300-room hotel located at 1200 Broadway at East 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
(29th Street), whose building still stands, the Grand (31st Street), also still standing – both were converted for residential use – and the Brunswick.
The Brunswick, at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue, was the hotel favored by the horsey set. The male-only New York Coaching Club, established in 1875 by Col. Delancey Astor Kane and William Jay
William Jay (Colonel)
William Jay was a Colonel is the US Army, vice president of the New York Herald, president of The Coaching Club, and a horseman.-Biography:He died on March 28, 1915 at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.-References:...
, was headquartered there, and elevated "four-in-hand" carriage riding to an art form. Holding the reins of all four horses in one fist, the drivers ("whips") guided their horses from the Brunswick to the carriage drives in Central Park and staged parades twice a year.
The St. James Hotel at Broadway and 26th Street, where the St. James Building now stands, was built in 1874 to accommodate a stylish crowd. With its 30 parlors, bar, cigar stand, barber shop, dining room and full-service amenities, the hotel served the needs of typical mid- to late-nineteenth century business and upscale clientele.
Known since 1987 as the Carlton, the Hotel Seville, named for the original investor Maitland E. Graves’ infatuation with the Spanish city, was designed by Harry Allen Jacobs, and opened its doors on East 29th Street and Madison Avenue in 1904, months before the unveiling of the city’s first subway. Renovated and transformed at a cost of $60 million more than a century later by David Rockwell
David Rockwell
David Rockwell is an American architect and designer, who is the founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, based in New York with satellite offices in Madrid and Dubai. Rockwell has long been fascinated with immersive environments.-Early life and education:...
, the hotel’s "Tiffany-style glass skylight" on the mezzanine was discovered under layers of paint “used to deter air raids during World War II.”
The Breslin Hotel, built in 1904, was transformed in 2009 into the Ace Hotel, a 300-room hotel whose restaurant has attracted a trendy crowd. Slated to open in 2011, the NoMaD Hotel at 28th Street and Broadway, will occupy the Johnston Building, a landmark 1900 French Renaissance limestone space. The Gershwin Hotel, on East 27th Street, and named after George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, has a unique facade, a combination of red paint and whimsical decorative touches.
Named for one of New York’s most oldest families, the 19-floor Gansevoort Park, is planned to open at Park Avenue and 29th Street, complete with a "glass column containing light-emitting diodes" that change color. Rounding out the host of boutique hotels in and around NoMad is Hotel Thirty Thirty, aptly located at 30 East 30 Street.
Restaurants
The neighborhood was once the home of Delmonico's, New York elite society's favorite restaurant and the birthplace of Lobster Newburg. Today it has a numerous restaurants serving a wide range of cuisines, including San Rocco, Hill Country Barbecue, Bamiyan Afghan Restaurant, Antique Cafe, SD26, A Voce, Country, Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse and Illi. Eataly, a 44000 square feet (4,087.7 m²) Italian food market comprising Italian restaurants, cafes and wine and food shops opened in Summer 2010.Culture, art and nightlife
NoMad is home to the Museum of SexMuseum of Sex
The Museum of Sex, also known as MoSex, is a sex museum located at 233 Fifth Avenue near 27th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on October 5, 2002.-History:...
, the New York Comedy Club and Tada! Youth Theater, and is also a center for antique galleries and one of the city’s largest collections of weekend flea markets. Nightspots and clubs include the Breslin Lobby Bar, Jay Z’s 40/40, the rooftop bar at 230 Fifth Avenue, Gstaad, Hillstone’s, and the Park Avenue Country Club.
See also
- Chelsea, ManhattanChelsea, ManhattanChelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
- Flatiron District
- Kip's Bay
- Madison Square North Historic DistrictMadison Square North Historic DistrictThe Madison Square North Historic District is in Manhattan, New York City, and was created on June 26, 2001 by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.Lying north and west of Madison Square Park, the district's boundaries are irregular...
- Murray HillMurray HillMurray Hill may refer to one of the following places:* Murray Hill, Kentucky, a small city in Kentucky* Murray Hill, Manhattan, a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
- Rose Hill, ManhattanRose Hill, ManhattanRose Hill is a recently-revived name for a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by 25th Street and 30th Street on the south and north, and by Third Avenue and Madison or Fifth Avenue on the east and west...
External links
- Madison Square Park News
- "Madison Square North Historic District Designation Report" of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission