The Faith Report: The life and times of Madison Square.

Madison Square is located between 23rd and 26th Streets and Fifth and Madison Avenues. Madison Avenue, in fact, begins at 23rd Street and Broadway cuts across Fifth Avenue at the southwest corner of the Square. At that corner, the famous phrase, "23 Skidoo" was coined, for the breeze is brisk there. Many women in the old days found it difficult to cross, for they ran the risk of having their skirts blown upward and their ankles exposed.

In the beginning, the square was a marsh. It progressed to a potter's field, a military arsenal and parade ground, a reformatory, and after the House of Refuge for the Society for the Protection of Juvenile Delinquents burned down in 1839, the city gradually turned it into a park, which was opened to the public in 1847 and was named for President James Madison, who lived in New York for a short time on Cherry Street. Over time the area was gradually reduced until it reached its present size.

By the 1870's the city had finally grown up to the Square and by the 1880's-1890's Madison Square was just about the center of everything.

At its foot, Broadway offered the glitter and glamour of theaters, restaurants, music halls and the beginning of the movies. Farther up, along Fifth Ave were elegant hotels, restaurants -- including the famous Delmonico's at 26th Street, cafes and homes. On the north and east sides of Madison Square itself were the new houses of the rich and socially well known, and Madison Square was considered one of the most attractive parts of the city.

On the triangle between Fifth and Broadway, one still finds the monument to general William J. Worth (Fort Worth, Texas, was named for him.) It is the only burial site of a public figure under a Manhattan thoroughfare.

Madison Avenue enjoyed the same success as Fifth. Leonard Jerome, who was Winston Churchill's grandfather, lived at Madison and 26th Street. That house later became the Manhattan Club, where it is said the Manhattan cocktail was invented. The club has since been torn down, but fortunately, the beautiful Supreme Court building next door escaped destruction.

The star of Madison Avenue was the second Madison Square Garden, designed by Stanford White. White, of McKim, Mead & White, was one of the significant architects of the 19th Century's "gilded age." The Garden contained an amphitheater, a roof garden, a concert hall, a cafe and a swimming pool. St. Gaudens' statue of Diana stood at the top. She wore a robe then, but the wind blew it off. She is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and still unclothed.

It was at the Garden where White met his tragic fate, on June 26th, 1906, at the hands of Harry K. Thaw. Stanford White was married to the former Bessie Smith. (Bessie was a very popular name in those days. The Duchess of Windsor's first name was Bessie.) When he was he was in his fifties, White met an extraordinarily beautiful actress and model from Philadelphia, Evelyn Nesbit. She was about seventeen and working to support her widowed mother and younger brother. She was the top model of the time: she even posed for Charles Dana Gibson.

On the top floor of his studio at 26 W. 24th St., White installed a swing on which he would push Evelyn, and henceforth she was known as "the girl on the red velvet swing."

Eventually, Nesbit left White for Harry K. Thaw, the spoiled scion of a rich and important Philadelphia family. White disliked Thaw and Thaw was jealous of White. On that June evening, the Thaws were attending a show at the Garden's roof garden. White was also in the audience. Evelyn said something to Harry. Shortly after, Harry got up from their table, approached Stanford White, drew a pistol from his coat pocket and shot White dead. Thaw was tried for murder and acquitted.

In 1902, the Flatiron Building, the first skyscraper in New York, went up at the foot of Madison Square. It was the beginning of a new era for the Square. The elegant residences and the Broadway glamour moved north. Office buildings took over. Even the Garden was torn down in 1925.

From the end of the First World War, until just a short time ago, the Madison Square area was simply a mid-town business district. The Park itself was a little scruffy; and even the squirrels were skinny. It seemed to have missed out on the recent rejuvenation that other parts of the city had been enjoying.

That is, until now. The area is benefiting from the overflow of success from the neighboring districts: lower Fifth Ave., Flatiron and Union Square. After undergoing a $5 million renovation, Madison Square Park has become an elegant green oasis; the squirrels are sleek once more.

New corporate business is discovering the area, which has never lacked for great office buildings. The area boasts such as structures as the New York Life Insurance Building, built on the site of the infamous Madison Square Garden, 50 Madison Ave., the Merchandise Mart, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, the North Building, and 63 Madison Ave.

There are new and reopened hotels geared to the European marketplace, such as The Giraffe, The Carlton, the Roger Williams, and the Prince George, which in its heyday entertained Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell. They have introduced a new generation of young, international shoppers to the area.

And the restaurants! There are two Danny Meyer restaurants, Tabla, and 11 Madison Park, which already have a loyal, affluent lunch and evening trade, and are established as neighborhood institutions. It was Mr. Meyer who almost single-handedly ignited the appeal of the Flatiron District with his first restaurants more than a decade ago. Others in the area include Mi Restaurant, Park Bistro, Park Avenue Country Club, Houstons, Brasserie les Halles, Dano, Mad 28 and The Globe.

Galleries are joining the mix. Only now is retail beginning to keep pace, which adds to the excitement of this redeveloping area. This is an excellent opportunity for a wide variety of retailers to accommodate an under-served eight million sf office population. An emerging market in Manhattan must have two qualitites: location and affordability. This has both.

To quote my associate, Joe Aquino, "The area is returning to the luster it once had."