Columbia Park

Columbia Park or Columbia Avenue Grounds was a baseball park in the Brewerytown neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was built in 1901 as the first home of the American League Philadelphia Athletics, who played there for eight seasons, including two games of the 1905 World Series. Columbia Park was also used by amateur, minor league, and Negro League baseball teams, as well as professional and amateur football clubs. Columbia Park was repurposed and used for circus performances in 1909 after the Athletics' move to the larger Shibe Park. The site would be sold in 1913 for the development and construction of residential houses.

Columbia Park was constructed in 1901 by the Philadelphia Athletics when the team was established, in the creation of the American League. The site was a vacant lot owned by Luther Martin for which manager and part-owner Connie Mack obtained a ten-year lease. It occupied the block bordered by 29th Street, Oxford Street, 30th Street, and Columbia Avenue (later renamed Cecil B. Moore Avenue, in honor of the civil rights leader). The park occupied one city block which was 400 (east-west) by 455 feet (north-south) and totaled 4.2 acres.

Martin had purchased the land in 1876 for $50,000 from GW Tryon. On March 18, 1841, Tryon had acquired the area from JE Ridgway for $14,000 as part of a ninety-five acre tract of farm land that extended to the Schuykill River at the west and Ridge Avenue at the north.

The area in 1901 was an active residential and commercial neighborhood familiar to Philadelphia sports fans and accessible by public transportation. The neighborhood was home to half of the city's breweries including F.A. Poth and Bergdoll Brewery, both among the largest producers in the country and within blocks of Columbia Park. It was often reported that the smell of hops and beer filled the ballpark and surrounding blocks. The city's earliest amateur and professional base ball clubs, Olympic, and then the National Association's Athletic Base Ball Club and later the American Association's Athletics had played until 1890 at the Jefferson Street Grounds four blocks southeast from Columbia Park. The Philadelphia Phillies had played their first seasons at Recreation Park, ¾ of a mile to the east of Columbia Park, as had the National Association Athletics and other local teams.

Ballpark options were limited for the new Philadelphia club in 1901. The Phillies had moved to National League Park on N Broad Street with the largest capacity in the city of 18,000, but closed to the Athletics who would compete for fans with the Phillies. Both the Jefferson Street Grounds and Recreation Park had been developed for residences and community use. Forepaugh Park had closed in 1894, and the block developed. The PRR's YMCA Athletic Field wold not be developed until 1903 and had limited capacity.

Columbia Park was built by contractor James B. Foster, at a cost of $35,000, equal to $1,322,860 today. In contrast to the Phillies' Philadelphia Ball Park built in 1887 and rebuilt in 1894 with non-union labor, the Athletics employed union exclusively in Columbia Park's 1901 construction. Philadelphia's union leaders praised the move, declaring in April 1901, "[we] welcome [the Athletics] amongst us as brother unionists, and promise them our support and assistance, and bespeak for them the hearty goodwill, favor and patronage of all self-respecting citizens of Philadelphia.

The stadium was small and originally had a seating capacity of only 9,500. This was increased to 13,600 by the addition of bleacher seating in the outfield. During 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.

At its opening in 1901, the ballpark consisted of a single-deck covered grandstand that extended from first base to third base, and bleachers down both foul lines. On the roof of the grandstand was a small press box set between a wire screen on each side to keep foul balls inside the park. Right field as considerably shorter than left, and a screen of chicken wire 25-feet in height was erected atop the exterior right field wall all the way to centerfield to keep balls from flying onto 29th Street or hitting the homes across the street.