Madison Square Garden, a world-famous sporting venue in New York City, has actually been a series of buildings in varied locations rather than a single building in one spot. In 1873, P.T. Barnum built Barnum's Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome at the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street, across from Madison Square Park. Two years later, the bandleader Patrick Gilmore bought the property, added statues and fountains, and renamed it Gilmore's Gardens. When Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the property in 1879, it was renamed Madison Square Garden.

A second very lavish Madison Square Garden was built at the same location in 1890, with a ballroom, a restaurant, a theater, a rooftop garden, and a main arena with seating for 15,000. However, this elaborate Madison Square Garden lasted until 1924 when it was torn down to make way for a forty-storey skyscraper.

When the second Madison Square Garden had been replaced in its location across from Madison Square Park, the boxing promoter Tex Rickard raised six million dollars to build a new Madison Square Garden. This new Madison Square Garden was constructed in a different location, on 8th Avenue and 50th Street and quite some distance from Madison Square Park and Madison Avenue. Rickard's Madison Square Garden served primarily as an arena for boxing prize fights and circus events until it outgrew its usefulness by the late 1950s.

A new location was found for a fourth for Madison Square Garden, a top Pennsylvania Railroad Station, and plans were announced for its construction in 1960. This current edifice, which includes a huge sports arena, a bowling center, a 5,000-seat amphitheater, and a twenty-nine-storey office building, does retain the traditional name Madison Square Garden. However, the name is actually quite a misnomer. The building is not located near Madison Square, nor does it have the flowery gardens that contributed to the original name.

(Adapted from Longman Preparation)