Madison Square Park

On our list of the best activities in New York.

Laid out as a military parade ground and named for James Madison in 1814, the square opened to the public in 1847 and quickly became a civic stage: an 1853 protest over plans to build the Crystal Palace here sent it to Bryant Park instead. Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Farragut monument has stood here since 1881, alongside statues of William Seward and Chester Arthur. Shake Shack, the world's first location of the chain, began as a hot-dog cart that restaurateur Danny Meyer set up to support one of the park's early public-art installations before it became a permanent kiosk.