The Garden's hockey rink was undersized at 191 by 83 feet (58.2 m × 25.3 m), some nine feet shorter and two feet narrower than standard (200 ft × 85 ft or 61 m × 26 m), due to the rink being built at a time when the NHL did not have a standard size for rinks. Shot of the New York Rangers practicing in Boston Garden Flaws The Bruins also raised numerous Adams Division, Presidents' Trophy and Wales Conference championship banners at the old Garden, but due to lack of space, they consolidated them into one single banner each upon moving to TD Garden. Likewise, the Bruins made a new set of banners when they moved to the FleetCenter, which were again replaced after the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals with six new banners, each using the contemporary logo of the Bruins when each Cup victory occurred. The Celtics used to raise Eastern Division championship banners at Boston Garden in the 1960s, but stopped this practice by the 1970s. The Celtics' old championship banners and retired numbers now hang at the team's now-former practice facility in Waltham a new set of banners were made for the move to the FleetCenter (now TD Garden). The Naden/Day Industries overhead scoreboard (which was electro-mechanical, not electronic, as more recent arenas used) hung in the Boston Garden-themed food court of the Arsenal Mall in Watertown until 2018, when the mall began to undergo renovations. The floor was cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs along with seats and bricks. Portions of the original floor are integrated with new parquet. The parquet floor was used at the FleetCenter until December 22, 1999. The floor became as much a part of Boston sports lore as the Green Monster of Fenway Park. It is said the Celtics knew which way the basketball would bounce off any section of the floor this was one contributing factor to the Celtics' many NBA championships. The parquet floor was built and installed in the aforementioned Boston Arena (first home of the Bruins hockey team) and moved to the Garden in 1952. While the parquet floor was an important part of the history of the Celtics, it was not originally part of the Garden. Combined with the following regular season, the Celtics' Garden record was an amazing 79-3 between the 1985––87 regular seasons. They also finished the post-season undefeated at home. During the 1985–86 season, the Celtics were 40–1 at home, setting the NBA record for home court mastery (before the San Antonio Spurs tied the record 30 years later in the 2015–16 season). When teams made playoff appearances, and a sold-out crowd was chanting or screaming, the impact was enormous.ĭue to the success of the Celtics in the 1980s, the Boston Garden was one of the most difficult buildings for visiting NBA teams. This physical proximity also created spectacular acoustic effects, much like the Chicago Stadium. Because of this design theme, fans were much closer to the players during Bruins and Celtics games than in most arenas, leading to a distinct hometown advantage. Rickard built the arena specifically with boxing in mind, believing every seat should be close enough to see the "sweat on the boxers' brows". Boston Garden was demolished in 1998, three years after the completion of its successor arena, TD Garden.
It was also used as an exposition hall for political rallies such as the speech by John F.
The Garden hosted home games for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), as well as rock concerts, amateur sports, boxing and professional wrestling matches, circuses, and ice shows. It was above North Station, a train station which was originally a hub for the Boston and Maine Railroad and is now a hub for MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak trains. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" (later shortened to just "Boston Garden") and outlived its original namesake by 30 years. The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Madison Square Garden Corporation (1928–1934)īoston Garden-Arena Corporation (1934–1973)