David Dyte asked for help on some photos of the exterior views of the perimeter wall at Weeghman Park (now better known as Wrigley Field).  The question was: Are these the original walls of Weeghman Park?  The short answer is no.  The original 1914 configuration, the revised 1914 configuration, and the 1915 configuration of Weeghman Park are covered in the following excerpt from my book Ballparks of the Deadball Era.

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The site of Weeghman Park was in a north-side Chicago residential area not far from Lake Michigan, and was formerly a mostly vacant lot at the intersection of Clark St and Addison Ave.  This property was owned by E. M. Cantillion, Joe Cantillion, and Edmund Archambault, the principal stockholders of the American Association Minneapolis Millers ⁽²³⁾.  These gentlemen, despite pressure from Organized Baseball, leased the property for the use by the outlaw Federal League.  The lease was signed in January 1914 and Charles Weeghman directed work on the ballpark to begin, which it did on March 4, 1914.  Opening Day was scheduled for April 23, less than two months away.  The original park site property was a rectangle bordered by on all sides by city streets: on the south-Addison Ave, on the east Sheffield Ave, on the north Waveland Ave, and Seminary Avenue/Clark St. on the west).  The southwest corner of the parcel was at the intersection of Clark and Addison.  Note that Clark St. ran northwest-southeast, Seminary Ave ran north-south, and terminated very near the intersection of Clark and Addison.  Note also that the block of Seminary Ave between Addison and Waveland no longer exists.

The original ballpark site did not utilize the entirety of the property.  On the northern portion of the property several large residential building stood on the south side of Waveland Ave and abutted the ballpark’s 1914 Opening Day northern boundary.  These buildings supplied a substantial rental income and were left intact in the park’s original construction.  About a 60 foot strip of land along the park’s western boundary (facing Seminary Ave and Clark St.) was also not part of the original ballpark site.  The plan was to use this strip of land for commercial purposes-a kind of ballpark shopping area.  The early 1914 ballpark site’s actual dimensions were: east-west along Waveland Ave estimated to have been about 515 feet, and the north-south dimension along Sheffield Ave estimated to have been about 525 feet.  The original ballpark site amounted to about 5.9 acres in size.  This was smaller than the typical ML ballpark used in the Deadball Era (1901-19).  The size of the entire property leased by the Chicago Federal League team was some 7.4 acres.

On Opening Day, April 23, 1914, the park consisted of (1) a single-deck covered steel-and-concrete grandstand that ran from beyond first base to beyond third base, (2) two pavilions (actually uncovered seating at this point in time) down the LF and RF lines, and, (3) the only seating in fair territory, a section of wooden bleachers in the right-center-field area.  The seating capacity of the ballpark was variously estimated as between 14,000 and 20,000.  The orientation of the field was conventional (home plate in the southwest portion of the field).  Thus the LF foul line ran north-south, and the RF foul line ran east-west and was parallel to Addison Ave.  The single-deck grandstand and pavilions all angled towards the LF and RF foul lines, which meant the first base stands diverged from Addison Ave as the stands neared the RF fence ⁽²⁴⁾.  The author’s estimates, of the 1914 Opening Day dimensions, (see below for basis of estimate) were LF 302, CF 376, the CF corner (left of dead CF) 406, RF 298 and home plate to the backstop: 62 feet.  A substantial brick wall enclosed most of the outfield, with a short fence topped by a low screen in front of the bleachers in right-center field.  There were picket fences in both the LF and RF corners.  A large scoreboard, an estimated 30 feet high and 40 feet wide, stood in LF.  The configuration detailed above lasted for all of three games (April 23-26).  The layout of the playing field meant the LF distance (at the foul pole) was only 302 feet.  In the three games played in this configuration, nine home runs were hit.  First of all, nine home runs in three games were unheard of in the Deadball Era.  In addition, untypical of the Deadball Era, all nine were Over-The-Fence (OTF) home runs, and eight of the nine were over the short LF fence.  Newspaper accounts spoke of these home runs to LF as “cheap shots”.  The team’s president, Charles Weeghman, admitted that the LF distance was too short, and took immediate steps to correct the problem.  An additional strip of land, already part of the lease, was added to the northern part of the ballpark (moving the northern boundary towards but not all the way to Waveland Ave).  This required the demolition of at least one back porch that had been attached to one of the houses on Waveland Ave.  This additional property allowed the LF distance to be increased 25 feet, while left-center was increased by nearly 50 feet ⁽²⁵⁾.  The new and expanded LF dimensions, along with a new LF-CF fence were in place when the team next played on April 28.  The large scoreboard located in LF, was moved to left-center three days later.  What was of interest was that the even shorter RF distance (estimated at 298 feet) attracted no discussion.  As Sheffield Ave was the eastern boundary of the park, there was no way to increase the RF distance unless the brand new grandstand and third base pavilion were to be somehow lifted up and moved  to the west.  The bleachers, located in right-center field, reduced even further the in-play area of the ballpark.

Before the 1915 season the park was again modified and expanded.  The residential buildings on the north edge of the ballpark were torn down and the occupants relocated (hopefully in the reverse sequence).  The ballpark’s northern boundary now extended all the way to Waveland Ave.  The purpose of this additional northern expansion was to permit the replacement of the right-center field bleachers with a new and larger set of bleachers that were built behind the new LF-CF fence.  This also required the second relocation of the scoreboard, this time from left-center to CF.  The new bleachers ran from the LF foul pole to the left edge of the scoreboard which was now in CF.  The CF scoreboard was located at a diagonal to the LF-CF bleachers and faced home plate.  The left edge of the scoreboard joined the back of the right edge of the LF-CF bleachers, and the scoreboard was entirely behind the RF-CF fence, and thus was completely out of play.  The new LF bleachers provided a net increase in capacity of several hundred seats.  The removal of the right-center bleachers also increased the area of fair territory in right-center and CF as the estimated right-center distance was increased by 35-40 feet.  The park now had an overall north-south dimension-estimated to have been about 565 feet-while the east-west distance along Addison Ave remained unchanged.  The total size of the park site was now about 6.7 acres.

After the 1915 season, Charles Weeghman acquired the Cubs NL franchise as part of the agreement shutting down the Federal League.  After the club was bought by William Wrigley, the ballpark’s name was changed to Cubs Park starting with the 1919 season.

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The Wrigley Field outfield was substantially altered during the 1937 season when the present day LF and RF bleachers were built.  As part of this construction a much higher LF perimeter wall was built to support the back of the LF bleachers.

Ron Selter