Named after 23rd Street, which meets Broadway and Fifth Avenue at Madison Square.
23rd Street was created under the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811. In 1814 city officials shrank a large military parade ground here and renamed it Madison Square, after President James Madison; Madison Avenue, which begins at the square, is named after it. The phrase ‘23 skidoo’ is said to come from wind gusts around the triangular Flatiron Building at the intersection.