The first building to be called “Madison Square Garden” was hardly the glass-and-steel construction the bears its name today. Nor was it yet “a new international landmark”, as advertisements called in 1968. Madison Square Garden I had much humbler origins, first built as a train depot for the New York and Harlem Railroad (itself a part of history, as quite likely the world’s first ever passenger train line to run through a city). After the depot left, P.T. Barnum remade the building into “Barnum’s Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome,” and used it for circus acts. Five years later Barnum gave way to open-air area name Gilmore’s Garden” and finally William Henry Vanderbilt, the son of Cornelius, took over the place for the sport of velodrome cycle racing.

On this day, May 31, in 1879 Madison Square Garden opened as a sports arena. It was named for its location, on 26th Street and Madison Avenue., preserving the “garden” name even as there was no garden in the building (and never was).

Vanderbilt did not just limited the building to cycle racing — MSG also hosted indoor track and field meets, convention of the Society of Elks, the National Horse Show, and, yes, more boxing. P.T. Barnum also came back to the Garden to showcase his newest acquisition, Jumbo the elephant, that he had bought from the London Zoo.