Irving M. Felt

Irving Mitchell Felt (25 January 1909 – 22 September 1994) was a New York businessman who led the drive in the 1960s to build a new Madison Square Garden.

Biography Felt was born Isadore Maurice Felt to Abraham and Dora (Mandel) Felt, into a Jewish family in Manhattan growing up around West 140th Street. His father was a lawyer. At the age of 19, he graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Finance and then took a job with the Wall Street concern, Hayden Stone. In July 1961, Felt announced that he would demolish McKim, Mead, and White's Pennsylvania Station at West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue and build a new Madison Square Garden at the site. Prior to the hearing for the demolition, his brother, James Felt, the then-current chair of the New York City City Planning Commission, resigned. He formed a new company, Madison Square Garden, Inc. which was 75% owned by Graham-Page and 25% owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. and as the head of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He also served on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera Association for two decades, he was a founding patron of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and served as a national trustee of the Joffrey Ballet. They divorced and in 1973, he married Serene Leavenworth (née Bihari), sister to the Bihari brothers. He has a stepson with Bihari, Randolph Julian Leavenworth III.