Merchant and real estate magnate Amos R. Eno leased land next to his Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1862[1] to James Fisk Jr., who built an after-hours gold trading exchange during the U.S. Civil War.

The house (seating area) during this period was described as being “plated with mirrors for the illusion of immensity,” with a palette of “blush rose, neatly framed in white, with delicate boundaries of gold.” Capacity was 900, or 1,000 with standees, and gas jets provided interior lighting.

It was four years until a new building appeared, first called the Fifth Avenue Hall, where a magician named Heller performed for several months in 1877, then Minnie Cumming's Drawing Room Theatre.

George and Marshall Mallory then erected yet another building on the site, for actor-director-playwright Steele Mackaye who had produced a few shows in the small hall in 1879 under a name they kept, the Madison Square Theatre.

Interior decoration was meant to evoke an intimate drawing-room, with imitation-mahogany trim, gold and pale colors, Shakespeare illustrations,[6] and a Tiffany-designed drop curtain that burned in an otherwise uneventful fire a few weeks after the reopening.

They used Hazel Kirke's long run to implement the nation's first theatrical touring organization with multiple companies of a single play and developed their promotional and management skills.

The Madison Square Theatre name returned in 1898, and remained through the management of Walter N. Lawrence until Eno's descendants demolished the building and the Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1908.