Columbia Park or Columbia Avenue Grounds was a baseball stadium that formerly stood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the first home of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team from the team's founding in 1901 until their move to Shibe Park in 1909.
Columbia Park was on the block bordered by North 29th Street, Columbia Avenue (now Cecil B. Moore Avenue), North 30th Street, and Oxford Street in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia (beer sales were prohibited in the park). The cost of construction was $35,000. The stadium was very small, and originally had a seating capacity of only 9,500. This was eventually increased to 13,600 by the addition of bleacher seating in the outfield. During some sold out games, unofficial additional seating could be found on top of the adjoining homes. There was only one dressing room, for the home team; visiting teams had to change at their hotels.
The opening game in Columbia Park was held on April 26, 1901, after the first two games were rained out. The Athletics played the Washington Nationals (Senators) in front of an overflow crowd of 10,524, with some fans standing on the outfield walls and the roofs of nearby houses. The Athletics lost 5-1, despite three hits by second baseman Nap Lajoie.
The Athletics won two American League pennants in Columbia Park, one in 1902 and one in 1905. The 1905 World Series was held in the Park; the Athletics lost to the New York Giants 4 games to 1.
The stadium also briefly served as the home of the Philadelphia Athletics football club, before the team folded in 1902. The Athletics leased the ballpark to the independent Negro League club, the Philadelphia Giants. The Giants played at the ballpark while the Athletics were on the road. The Giants were the first club to play night-baseball in Philadelphia when they played under portable lights on June 4, 1902. The Philadelphia Phillies temporarily called Columbia Park home in 1903 while Baker Bowl was repaired after a balcony collapse on August 8, 1903. The Phillies played sixteen games at Columbia Park in August and September 1903.
The final game played at the park took place on October 3, 1908; the visiting Boston Americans defeated the Athletics 5-0 in the second game of a doubleheader. The lack of seating at Columbia Park was the main reason the Athletics left for Shibe Park. After the Athletics left, the park was almost entirely abandoned. Columbia Park was eventually demolished in the 1910s to make way for new homes.
The sod from Columbia Park was transplanted to Shibe Park after the 1908 season.
Famous quotes containing the words columbia and/or park:
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)
“Mrs. Mirvan says we are not to walk in [St. James’s] Park again next Sunday ... because there is better company in Kensington Gardens; but really, if you had seen how every body was dressed, you would not think that possible.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)