Early century The park was the site of an unusual public protest in 1901. Oscar Spate, a displaced Londoner, convinced the Parks Commissioner, George Clausen, to allow him to pay the city $500 a year to put 200 cushioned rocking chairs in Madison Square Park,
Union Square, and
Central Park and charge the public 5 cents for their use. Free benches were moved away from shaded areas, and Spate's chairs replaced them. When a heat wave hit the city in July, people in Madison Park refused to pay the nickel that was now required to sit in the shade. The police became involved, and newspapers like
The Sun and
William Randolph Hearst's
Evening Journal took up the cause. People began going to the park with the intent of sitting and refusing to pay, and a riot occurred involving a thousand men and boys, who chased the chairs' attendant out of the park and overturned and broke up chairs and benches. Two months later, in September, the Seventy-first Regiment Band played "
Nearer, My God, to Thee" in the park as recognition of the death by
assassination of President
William McKinley. The hymn had been McKinley's favorite. On the election night of November 4, 1902, a fireworks disaster led to the deaths of 15 people (Including Patrolman Dennis Shea of the NYPD) and the wounding of 70, as a display meant to celebrate the election of
William Randolph Hearst to Congress misfired. in Madison Square Park, c. 1912 In 1908, the
New York Herald installed a giant searchlight among the girders of the Metropolitan Life Tower to signal election results. A northward beam signaled a win for the Republican candidate, and a southward beam for the Democrat. The beam went north, signaling the victory of Republican
William Howard Taft. America's first community
Christmas tree was illuminated in Madison Square Park on December 24, 1912, an event which is commemorated by the illuminated Star of Hope on a tall pole, installed in 1916 at the southern end of the park. Today the Madison Square Park Conservancy continues to present an annual tree-lighting ceremony sponsored by local businesses. Author
Willa Cather described Madison Square around 1915 in her novel
My Mortal Enemy (1926): Madison Square was then at the parting of the ways; had a double personality, half commercial, half social, with shops to the south and residences to the north. It seemed to me so neat, after the raggedness of our Western cities; so protected by good manners and courtesy—like an open-air drawing-room. I could well imagine a winter dancing party being given there, or a reception for some distinguished European visitor.
A commercial neighborhood In the early part of the 20th century, the neighborhood around Madison Square Garden became known for the number of clothing manufacturers who had set up shop there, as well as industrial concerns such as the
Lionel Train Company, which had its headquarters there, where it displayed its first model train layout. Lionel's competitor, the
A. C. Gilbert Company, set up its New York "Hall of Science" in the neighborhood as well, in 1941, on
25th Street across from
Worth Square, in a building that still stands, addressed as 202 Fifth Avenue; Gilbert also displayed its train layouts. Lionel eventually bought up Gilbert in 1967. The New York City Department of Traffic announced a plan in 1964 to build a parking garage underneath the park, much like the
Boston Common,
Union Square in San Francisco and
MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. The plan was successfully blocked by preservationists, who cited concerns about the damage that the excavation would cause to the park, particularly the roots of its many trees. On October 17, 1966,
a fire at 7 East 23rd Street resulted in one of the deadliest building collapses in the history of the
New York City Fire Department, when 12 FDNY staff—two chiefs, two lieutenants, and eight
firefighters—were killed. This was the department's greatest loss of life before the
September 11 terrorist attacks. A plaque honoring the victims can be seen on Madison Green, the apartment building currently occupying the site.
Restoration By the middle of the 20th century, some of the buildings in the neighborhood were half-empty, Efforts began in 1979 with a privately funded program to clean up and maintain the park, the first time that non-public funding was used in New York City for long-term work in the city's parks. a
public-private partnership whose mission is to keep it "a bright, beautiful and active public park." stand, added in 2004. The chain began in 2001 as a hot dog cart at the Madison Square Park.|alt=The Shake Shack stand that was added to the park in 2004 One amenity, added to the park in July 2004, is the
Shake Shack, a popular permanent stand that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, shakes and other similar food, as well as wine. Its distinctive building, which was designed by
Sculpture in the Environment, an architectural and environmental design firm based in
Lower Manhattan, sits near the southeast entrance to the park. In 2010, park designer and horticulturalist
Lynden Miller was hired to reconfigure the planting beds. ==Current status==