Antique Stadiums
from the early 20th Century

National League ballparks

Since the National League was well established by the dawn of the 20th Century, nearly all of its teams played in stadiums that had been constructed during the 1890s. Five of the eight National League teams built new stadiums during the "teens" (1910s). Of those that didn't, the Chicago Cubs moved into the newly built stadium abandoned by the defunct Whales in 1916, and both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies moved into the stadiums owned by their American League counterparts, in 1920 and 1938, respectively.

American League ballparks

In contrast to the National League, most American League teams had to build new stadiums from scratch, with the notable exception of the three teams (Baltimore, Cleveland, and Washington) that had been kicked out of the National League after the 1899 season. Seven of the eight American League teams built new stadiums during the "teens" (1910s), and the other one (the Yankees) built their colossal stadium soon thereafter, in 1923. In spite of this league's "upstart" status, two of its teams ended up as "landlords" to their poor National League counterparts: the Browns to the Cardinals, and the Athletics to the Phillies, in 1920 and 1938, respectively. In both cases, nevertheless, the American League teams fell out of favor in their respective cities and ended up relocating in the early 1950s.

Background notes

Information on the stadiums used by major league teams in the 19th and early 20th Centuries is hard to come by. They were constructed almost exclusively of wood, and several of them burned down. This explains why so many of these stadiums were rebuilt at least once over the years; the Roman numerals by the stadium names indicate the successive versions. In nearly all cases, they were rebuilt in the same location as the previous version. This same transitory nature gave rise to frequent modifications in terms of the outfield dimensions, bleacher sections, and the grandstands themselves. Hence, the data in the tables above are of a rather tentative nature, which in turn is why it would be extremely difficult to derive accurate diagrams for these truly "antique" stadiums. In cases where changes occurred, the dimensions cited above pertain to the longest span of years during the first decade of the 20th Century. Note that two of these ballparks, the Baker Bowl and Robison Field, remained in use for many years after the rest of the major league teams had built their own modern concrete-and-steel stadiums.

ALSO SEE: 19th Century Major Leagues

Thanks in large part to research input from one of the biggest fans of this Web site, Mr. Bruce Orser, I plan to create separate pages for most if not all of the stadiums listed on this page, time and resources permitting.

SOURCE: Lowry (2006)