Description:

Barnum Phineas 1810 - 1891
P.T. Barnum, the greatest promoter in history, extolls the merits of his newly rebuilt "Hippodrome" ‰ÛÓ the predecessor to the first Madison Square Garden ‰ÛÓ following its destruction by fire in December 1873.

Fine content Autograph Letter Signed, "P. T. Barnum," 2 pages, 4.25" x 6.75" (visible) on his personal monogramed letterhead, Bridgeport, Connecticut, June 13, 1874 to "My dear Cuyler." Expected mailing folds, else very fine. Matted and framed with a portrait of Barnum at center. Not examined out of frame.



Barnum writes, in full: "I have just returned from Vermont and find your welcome letter. Hope I am not too late to do you good. My Hippodrome is well worth your family seeing. It is much more interesting at night than day on account of good light and more people being present, but just the same exhibitions are given day as evening. Please show enclosed [not present] to Mr [Samuel Henry] Hurd my son in law & he will fix you out all right[.] Kindest Regards to your family. I wish you could call on me and see the most pleasant location & the nicest residence on the footstool[?]."



After a large fire destroyed his first Hippodrome, located on Fourteenth Street in New York in December 1873 (which incidentally is where he first staged what would become his famous circus), Barnum resolved to build a larger (and fire retardant) structure on the site of the recently-abandoned terminal for Cornelius Vanderbilt's New York Central Railroad (which had just been moved to is present location at 42nd Street). The open-air venue, was located adjacent to Madison Square Park 26th and 27th streets and Madison and Fourth Avenue (present-day Park Avenue South). Barnum continued to operate at the site until 1879 when the Vanderbilts regained control of the property and erected Madison Square Garden, the first of four structures that would carry the name.



Barnum's daughter Helen (1840-1915) married Samuel Henry Hurd (d. 1898) in On October 20 1857. At the time Hurd part of the firm Morrison, Hurd & Co., makers of safes (New York Times, October 21, 1857, p. 5; New York Business Directory, 1859). Hurd also served as the treasurer of Barnum's Hippodrome.

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