Several miles beyond the city proper, it was a post tavern in the coaching days, and the huge pair of antlers announced the "Sign of the Buck-horn." It had its brief and glorious day and then passed.

Early in 1853 it was torn down to make room for a circus, known as Franconi's Hippodrome, built by a syndicate of American showmen, among whom were Avery Smith, Richard Sands, and Seth B.Howe.The lithograph in the Collection of J.
Clarence Davies shows a combination of tent roof and permanent wall.
There was a turretted sexagonal entrance at the corner facing the Avenue and Twenty-third Street, and another at the northern end of the building.

Seven hundred feet in circumference was the Hippodrome, of brick sides, two stories high, with an oval ring in the centre two hundred feet wide by three hundred feet long, seating six thousand people, and having standing room for about half as many more.

It was a bold venture, perhaps too bold for its time.

When the novelty had worn off the profits began to dwindle and then ceased entirely.