It's been a potter's field, an arsenal and a military parade ground. Until 1844, a major wagon route to Boston occupied its site. Madison Square Park was named for President Madison and opened to the public in 1847; at first it was the centerpiece of one of New York’s most exclusive residential neighborhoods. Broadway between Union and Madison Squares emerged as a commercial center in the late-1800s and the construction of the Fuller (Flatiron) Building sealed it. The first two Madison Square Gardens, built in 1879 and 1890 respectively (the latter built by Stanford White, who was murdered by Harry Thaw in his own creation) overlooked the square, and according to some sources, Alexander Cartwright formalized the rules of baseball and created the Knickerbockers, the first professional baseball team, here in 1846.
Take a stroll through Madison Square Park and you’ll see statues of men who wielded great power in their era but aren’t necessarily household names anymore.
Senator William Henry Seward’s main claim to fame is that he engineered the sale of Alaska from Russia to the U.S. in 1867. But he was also a powerful government figure: governor of New York, 1838-1843, U.S. Senator from New York, 1849-1861, and Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State, 1861-1869. At the 1860 Republican Convention he nearly beat Lincoln for the nomination. Though anti-slavery, he opposed war with the Confederacy.
Seward was attacked by conspirator Lewis Powell on orders by John Wilkes Booth the same evening that Booth assassinated Lincoln. (Booth’s brother, Edwin, a famous actor of his time, is memorialized with a statue in Gramercy Park, a few blocks away.) Seward was played by David Strathairn in the 2012’s Lincoln with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.
The statue, by Randolph Rogers, was unveiled in 1876. When Rogers completed a statue of Lincoln for Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, there were striking similarities between the two figures, and some claimed that to save money he used the same figure twice. What happened is that the committee for the Seward statue was unable to afford the sculptor’s full fee. So with a few changes in body details, some repositioning of limbs, and the alteration of the Emancipation Proclamation to fit the size of the Alaska Purchase agreement, including the signature pen, Rogers was able to recycle the statue. Seward was the first New Yorker honored with a public monument.
This photo was acquired at a unique period in the monument’s history. In 2019 the Madison Square Park Conservancy decided to replace the base of the monument. The original Italian Red Levante marble base had deteriorated so much that tests showed simple repairs were no longer possible (tests in 1936 showed the same thing). Seward was removed from the park for a short time while a new Brazilian Arno granite base could be installed and the statue replaced atop it.
However, in December 2019 the identifying bronze lettering hadn’t yet been put back, and so, passersby may have been wondering, “who is that guy?” before the lettering was replaced.
Described as a charismatic and flamboyant orator, Roscoe Conkling (1828-1888) was Senator of New York between 1867-1881 after two stints at the House. In 1876, Conkling lost in a squeaker to Rutherford B. Hayes for the Republican presidential nomination. Hayes later triumphed in the general election by amassing more electoral, though not more popular, votes than Democratic opponent Samuel Tilden, in a situation not unlike the 2000 presidential election. In March 1888 Conkling was caught outdoors near Union Square at the worst of the famed blizzard of that year and died from exposure.
John Quincy Adams Ward’s statue of the senator was installed in 1893. 1920's comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was named for the senator: apparently, Arbuckle's father thought his son was the product of an affair, so he named him after a politician of his youth that he disliked. You can find him in the park at the corner of E. 23rd and Madison Ave.
With his muttonchop sideburns, President Chester Alan Arthur (1830-1886) looked like a model of a modern U.S. President (in the Victorian Age), which he was between 1881 and 1885. Born in Vermont but a transplanted New Yorker, he was elected as James Garfield's vice-president and assumed office when Garfield was assassinated. As president, he reformed civil service and introduced the merit system in federal employment. Despite Mark Twain's support, he didn’t get the Republican nomination in the 1884 elections. It may have been just as well, because Arthur knew by then he had a terminal kidney illness. His statue, sculpted by George Bissell in 1899, is near the park’s northeastern end at E. 26th and Madison Ave. He was sworn in at his residence nearby.
The General William Jenkins Worth Monument, on the triangle formed by Broadway, 5th Ave., and 25th St., not only is a memorial to the general (1794-1849), but also his gravesite. It was created by sculptor James Batterson in 1857, when his remains were transferred here. The iron gate surrounding the obelisk is famed among cast-iron connoisseurs.
According to some accounts, General Worth was “egotistical, truculent and insulting,” although he commanded ably, having risen to the rank of captain during the War of 1812 as major in the Indian wars and as brigadier general in the Mexican War in 1846-1849. He died of cholera in 1849 in Texas: the city of Fort Worth was named for him. Though he didn’t die in battle, he’s depicted on a bronze portrait on the obelisk with both his mount’s front hooves off the ground, common for heroic death in statuary code. Though Worth was from Hudson, NY and attended West Point and later commanded it, he isn’t especially connected with New York City. Yet, he’s buried here, and a downtown street (Anthony St.) was renamed for him soon after his death.
The greatest naval commander of the Civil War, David Farragut‘s father was a Spanish sea captain who fought for the colonies in the Revolution. After his mother died, his father allowed the boy to be adopted by U.S. naval officer; Farragut accompanied him during the War of 1812, and Farragut obtained his first command during the Mexican War in 1848. In 1862, when Farragut’s Union fleet took New Orleans, he was made a rear admiral. Fifteen months later, he sailed to Mobile Bay to take on one of the Confederacy’s most indispensable ports.
At the height of the battle for Mobile Bay, Farragut was lashed to the mast of his ship so he could see further into the distance. Noticing that the bay was booby-trapped with mines, Farragut chose to enter the bay anyway, shouting “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” The North took Mobile Bay. Congress created the rank of vice admiral for Farragut, and he later became admiral. He died in 1870. Irish sculptor Auguste Saint- Gaudens’ monument was installed in 1881, along E. 26th St. between 5th and Madison.
—Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)