Ah, those earliest warm, sunny New York days in March. They bring out creatures of all kinds to bask in the spring weather and do what they were meant to do.
For flowers, plants, and trees, that means just starting to bloom.
For squirrels I suppose it can mean a bit of self-cleaning:
I had never seen a squirrel doing that!
And for squirrels it can also mean hanging out and taking a look around. First in my general direction:
And then Hey, what's going on over there?
Taking photos of squirrels made me feel especially like a tourist because I often see tourists marveling at them and snapping pics. I guess they don't have squirrels in other parts of the world, though I wouldn't have guessed that because they're as abundant here as pigeons and those certainly seem to be an international animal.
Anyway where was I? Oh yes, so we have plant behavior and squirrel behavior on a nice March day. And what is human behavior? Waiting on line at Shake Shack, of course. What?
Their food seems good but I don't know if any food is good enough for waiting on a long line when you're in the middle of Manhattan. I'll try not to judge. Good for Shake Shack, I guess.
I haven't even mentioned where we are in this post, other than in the title. Madison Square Park runs from 23rd to 26th Street and is bordered to the east by Madison Avenue. The northern part of its western edge is along 5th Avenue, but instead of continuing south along 5th Avenue to complete the rectangle, its southwestern border is the diagonal-cutting Broadway. This leaves a chunk of that rectangular corner out of the park and forms a separate pedestrian area, including Flatiron Plaza in front of, conveniently, the Flatiron Building.
The Flatiron Building is one of the very nice buildings bordering the park. I featured it more in a previous post. Here is a view from inside Madison Square:
Along the Madison Avenue border to the east is the Met Life Tower:
Construction on it finished in 1909 and it is 700 feet tall. It was the tallest building in the world from 1909-1913, until the Woolworth Building farther downtown overtook it. Here is a 1911 photo by Irving Underhill:
Facing the southeast corner of the park:
Here are a few other nearby building features that stuck out to me. At the northeast corner:
The northwest corner:
And along Madison Avenue:
In my post on Washington Square North I mentioned an historic tree, and this park has one too!
Here's the tree:
Pretty cool. I never noticed that plaque before.
A lot of the grassy areas in the park seem off limits to the public, which I guess is good for their health. The grassy areas' health, that is. Here's a big field in the middle of the park:
And from the other side:
You can see a lamppost light being on in the above photo. This was the case for most of them in the park even though it was the mid-afternoon. I'm not sure what the deal is there.
There is a kids' playground in the northeast area, in the background of the photo below.
I saw this sign in a small section next to the playground:
I thought the garden might just be a small area next to one side of the playground. According to the website of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, however, Bridget's Garden goes all around it and was named after Bridget Watkins, "a champion and friend of Madison Square Park."
Along the northern area was this circular space where a lot of people were sitting, perhaps because the big grass field was closed off.
The statue to the right in the photo is of David Glasgow Farragut.
He served in the U.S. Navy and Union Navy from 1810-1870. A famous phrase comes from him, which is generally considered either mythical or a paraphrasing of an order during his winning effort at the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
There is another military tribute in the park, the Eternal Light Flagstaff, seen here from a distance:
After victory in World War I, the U.S. Army and Navy were honored here, and this commemorates those service members. The star at the top is meant to always be lit as a tribute to those who gave their lives. Here is one side of the base:
Also along the western side of the park is Jemmy's Run, which was named best dog park of 2015 by the Village Voice. I didn't need to look up that info because I've memorized every Village Voice best dog park winner going back to the 1920's. I don't have a photographic memory, it's just how I spend my free time.
Here are some looks at the southeast corner of the park, near the Shake Shack area.
The statue is of Roscoe Conkling, a New York politician who served in the U.S. House and Senate in the 19th century.
There are two more political statues in the park. Here's William H. Seward:
And "Chester Alan Arthur," aka Chester A. Arthur:
A small section of the park was closed off for a tree removal:
It was nice to have the process explained in detail.
Please don't feed pigeons. Just... don't.
In conclusion, Madison Square Park is a very pleasant place, especially when the weather is nice. A pretty relaxed vibe overall. And if you want to avoid long lines for food, go to Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop just a block away on 5th Avenue. You won't regret it.
Although some might consider 14th Street the cutoff of what is "downtown Manhattan," I think this area is still downtown. And besides, I'm not going to be too rigid about such things for this blog, since that would mean cutting off a lot of interesting blocks.
Here's a look at the east side of this block, which features a famous New York landmark, the Flatiron Building:
Here's a wider shot of Ol' Flatty (I don't think that's an actual nickname of the Flatiron Building):
Not only is this a classic New York building, but it's a unique one with its own character.
It was constructed in 1902. Many people think the building's name comes from its shape, but it actually comes from its architects, the brothers Mel and Barry Flatiron. Okay, I made that up. It really was built in 1902, though.
On the Flatiron side of the block is a Sprint phone store and a shop called Origins that sells skincare. There's a gumball machine right outside the Origins store:
I'm not sure what gumballs have to do with peace of mind, but a gumball machine is always a nice touch.
Here's a wider shot of the store:
You can see a little bit in the above photo that the side of the Flatiron building has lots of interesting, detailed designs carved into it.
On the ground level at the northern tip of the Flatiron Building is an art piece:
When it says "We are all flakes!" I'm choosing to interpret that in the positive sense.
It would be nicer if the artwork wasn't brought to you by Sprint, but I guess it's better than no art there at all.
Here's some of what's on the other side of the block:
I couldn't decide what to complain about first in the above photo: A second phone store on the same block; a freakin' 7-Eleven in New York City; or the bank on the corner, since it seems like there's a bank on just about every block. I'm gonna go with the 7-Eleven. Why is that in the middle of Manhattan? I guess some people like it, but there's just so many delis and other food places all over. Whatever.
Here's some more of that side of the block:
Near the corner is Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, which was my original motivation for writing about this block. I first heard of it in an episode of Anthony Bourdain's old show No Reservations. Along with being a sandwich shop, Eisenberg's also describes itself as a diner and coffee shop. It dates back to 1929 and is an authentic-feeling classic New York place, right down to the oldies from the '50s and '60's they play inside. I was surprised that I hadn't heard of it before, especially since I've walked right by it so many times in my life.
In the No Reservations episode they order a tuna sandwich, which sounded good to me, and a lime rickey, which I'd never had before but was curious to try.
The lime rickey was good. It had a unique, old-fashioned type of taste, and I couldn't tell exactly what was in it. My best guess was cranberry juice (something has to make it red) and ginger ale. Or maybe the red color just came from syrup they added to it? I tried looking up the ingredients to a lime rickey and there seem to be different versions. I don't know exactly how Eisenberg's makes it but in general a lime rickey seems to involve club soda, syrup, and possibly either soda or lime juice. Plus the lime wedge, of course. I don't know, let's just say it was good and leave it at that.
The tuna sandwich was delicious too by the way.
And on the way out they have complimentary mints at the register! Don't worry, germophobes, each mint is individually wrapped, not just loose in a big bowl:
Here's one more look at the west side of the block:
Between Eisenberg's and the Flatiron Building, this is a very nice block to visit. And you can see above that it also has a pretty good view of another famous New York building, whose name escapes me. Oh yeah, the Empire State Building.
I look forward to trying the malt and egg cream at future visits to Eisenberg's!
