Madison Square Garden & Park circa 1900

This magic lantern slide shows Madison Square Park looking north and east from 23rd Street. All the vehicles seen in the photo are horse drawn and the surrounding buildings give us a clue to a date of 1900.

21 inch Diana sculpture

Just beyond the park on the corner of 26th Street and Madison Avenue is the most prominent building in the photo, McKim Mead and White’s Madison Square Garden with its famous tower.

On the top of the tower, though it is hard to see, is sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens statue of Diana.

It was designed to be a fancy weather vane. The original Diana statue put atop the tower in 1891 was 18 feet tall and did not move as expected in the wind. After removal the statue was partially damaged in a fire and the remainder was lost or destroyed.

A second redesigned statue put up in 1893 was 14 and a half feet tall. When the Garden was demolished in 1925 the statue was carefully removed. That statue is currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There exist 21 and 31 inch bronze replicas cast by Saint-Gaudens. They can sell for over $100,000 when they are made available at auction.

In the foreground at the bottom of the photo is the statue of William H. Seward. In the lower left corner casting a long shadow is the incredibly fancy street light that used to stand at the intersection of 23rd Street and Broadway and Fifth Avenue.