Built in 1925 and closed in 1968, it was located on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets in Manhattan, on the site of the city's trolley-car barns.

In 1968 it was demolished and its role and name passed to the fourth Madison Square Garden, which stands at the site of the original Penn Station.

[1] Designed by the theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it was built at the cost of $4.75 million in 349 days by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who assembled backers he called his "600 millionaires" to fund the project.

"[2] In contrast to the ornate towers of Stanford White's second Garden, the exterior of MSG III was a simple box.

[1] It had poor sight lines, especially for hockey, and fans sitting virtually anywhere behind the first row of the side balcony could count on having some portion of the ice obstructed.

On January 17, 1941, 23,190 people witnessed Fritzie Zivic's successful welterweight title defense against Henry Armstrong, still the largest crowd at any of the Gardens.

The refusal of the Garden's management to allow the postwar resurrection of the Americans team was one popular theory underlying the Curse of 1940, which supposedly prevented the Rangers from winning another Stanley Cup until 1994.

[5] The fourth floor of the Garden had a second sheet of ice, used for public skating, recreational hockey, and as the Rangers' practice facility.

In 1931, a highly successful college basketball triple header raised money for Mayor Jimmy Walker's Unemployment Relief Fund.

In 1934, Ned Irish began promoting a successful series of college basketball double headers at the Garden featuring a mix of local and national teams.

[7] From 1925 until 1961, Madison Square Garden hosted the Six Days of New York, an annual six-day racing event of track cycling.

The circus was so important to the Garden that for the 1928 Stanley Cup Finals, the Rangers were forced to play all their games on the road, but they still won the series.

Previously, the corporation had sought to replace the arena as early as 1946 due to poor sight lines from the upper decks and expanding attendance.

Even though the Rangers played poorly during this time, they still sold out every game; added to the rising popularity of the Knicks, the demand for a new arena grew.

The space remained a parking lot until 1989 when Worldwide Plaza, designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, opened on the site of the old Garden.