Subject: Cleveland Forest Citys Ballpark 1871-1872 (and other ramblings)
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:09:34 -0400
From: "Eric Angyal" <EAngyal@...>
To: <fvcblue@...>, <maury@...>

Robert & Maury

 

I was doing some web based research on former ballpark sites in Cleveland, Ohio and I saw that there was a ballpark committee at SABR so I thought you might best be able to answer my questions.  I am an amateur historian living in the Cleveland area (Bedford) who has an interest in researching old maps, atlases, and most of all, local baseball history.  One of my goals is to make a "pilgrimage" to all of the sites of the former ballparks in the Cleveland area.  I have already done the obvious - Cleveland Stadium, Jacobs Field, and League Park. 

 

What I am most interested is finding out accurate locations of National Association Grounds (Forest City's 1871-1872), Kennard Street Park (Blues 1879-1884), National League Park I and II (Blues/Spiders 1887-1890) and Brotherhood Park (Infants 1890).  I was wondering if you have (or can point me toward good sources of) documentation of the locations of these parks.

 

I have copies of the Wallings City of Cleveland maps prepared by the Cleveland City Engineer from 1868, 1872, and 1873 as well as other maps from the 1870’s, 1880s, and 1890’s.  Based on those maps, I think I have identified one possible location for the National Association Grounds (on the east side of East 55th Street, south of the intersection of Woodland and Kinsman, on what is now a dead end street called Diamond Avenue), but I need to verify – as this site does not match any of the vague and very sketchy information I have been able to turn up in my research for the acknowledged location of their field.  I have attached a jpg of a portion of the 1872 map which clearly shows Diamond Park.  Interesting thing is that my 1868 Wallings map does not have a park located there, and the “diamond” shape park does not appear on a later (1884) map I have of this area, only streets are shown.   The shape makes sense, and the dates all fit for the park use, but the location does not match other references.  Do you know when baseball fields were first referred to as “diamonds”?  That may shed some light on my questions.

 

Can either of you provide any help in my locating the parks in question or confirm/deny my suspicion of Diamond Park?  If the Forest City’s didn’t play there, then who might have?  The park was obviously important enough in 1872 for the City of Cleveland to have on their maps.   Also, do you know of any photographs of any of these demo’d parks or the teams that played in them? Any help from either of you would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric A. Angyal, PE

Senior Engineer

 

BBC&M Engineering, Inc.

8555 Sweet Valley Drive, Suite S

Valley View, Ohio  44125-4254

 

phone: (216) 901-1000 extension 103

fax: (216) 901-9996

e-mail: eangyal@...