Griffith Stadium
Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street, and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW.
The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundary Field, or National Park after the team that played there: the Washington Senators/Nationals. It was destroyed by a fire in 1911.
It was replaced by a steel and concrete structure, at first called National Park and then American League Park; it was renamed Clark Griffith Stadium for Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith in 1923. The stadium was home to the American League Senators from through 1960, and to an expansion team of the same name for their first season in.
The venue hosted the All-Star Game in 1937 and 1956 and World Series games in 1924, 1925, and 1933. It served as home for the Negro league Homestead Grays during the 1940s, when it hosted the Negro World Series in 1943 and 1944. Griffith was also home to the Washington Redskins of the National Football League for 24 seasons, from the time they transferred from Boston in 1937 through the 1960 season.
The ballpark was demolished in 1965; the site is now occupied by Howard University Hospital.
Early history
On March 17, 1911, Boundary Field, also known as National Park and American League Park, was destroyed by a fire started by a plumber's blowtorch. This left the owners of the Washington Senators in a difficult situation, since spring training had already begun and opening day was less than a month away. Thomas C. Noyes, president of the Senators, gained approval from the club's board of directors to build a new ballpark with a steel grandstand on the same site as Boundary Field. The quick construction of the ballpark was reported by The Washington Post: "Day and night the chanting of the negro laborers has been heard in the vicinity, like Aladdin's palace, the structure rose as if by magic." Opening Day 1911, the grandstand was sufficiently stable to host President William Howard Taft and the Boston Red Sox, as well as 16,000 fans. Construction of Griffith Stadium continued while the Senators were on the road, and was not completed until July 24, 1911.Field design
The wooden ballpark had been laid out with home plate through second base pointing eastward. The new ballpark had the diamond rotated so that home plate through second base pointed southeast. The outfield area was also expanded significantly, especially in left field.The stadium was laid out at an angle within its block in the Washington street grid. Thus it was over down the left field line to the bleachers. The fence also took an unusual right-angled jut into right-center field where a large tree and five houses stood, due to the unwillingness of the owners of the tree and houses to sell to the Senators' owners during construction of the stadium.
The right-field fence angled away from the infield sharply, which, in addition to a fence about inside the lower, outer wall, meant that relatively few home runs were hit at the stadium. The field's orientation was unorthodox, as center field was east-southeast of home plate, which made for difficult visibility for the fielders in the late afternoon sun; recommended alignment is east-northeast. The elevation of the natural grass playing field was approximately above sea level.
The Senators' groundskeepers maintained a downhill slope from home plate to first base, supposedly to help accelerate slow Washington batters. However, Griffith's groundskeepers were still adept at keeping a fine sod field that was "compared to that of the best golf courses." This was in sharp contrast to the unkempt field that can be seen in photographs of Griffith prior to 1923. For many years, the right field grandstand wall served as the right-field foul line for the last before the foul pole, making it impossible to catch a ball there. The tall, hand-operated scoreboard in right-center was in play, as was the National Bohemian beer sign, shaped like a bottle, above the playing field. At one point in his youth, future MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was the operator of the scoreboard.
The outfield seats in left and center field butted up against 5th Street. The football field ran along the third base line.
Expansion and changes
In the early 1920s, a trend began of fans flocking in great numbers to the stadium to see baseball's rising stars from opposing teams; when the New York Yankees came to Washington, the chance to see Babe Ruth brought large crowds to the ballpark. Clark Griffith took advantage of this trend by making small improvements in the stadium in 1920 and 1921. These improvements included changing the main entrance of the park from Georgia Avenue to a refurbished one on Florida Avenue and spending $3,200 to build an office for himself beneath the grandstand. After various other small improvements, on August 21, 1923, Griffith announced plans to greatly expand and refurbish the ballpark. Following the trend of ballparks being named for their teams' owners, that August announcement included renaming the venue Clark Griffith Stadium. The stadium, built in 1911, had been hastily constructed and provided minimal seating and other features when compared with other ballparks. The planned expansion was reported to cost $100,000, and expanded the seating capacity to "about 35,000", a number that wound up being 32,000. The new seating came from the complete rebuilding of the left-field grandstand into a double-decked tier. The new upper section was wider than the old, resulting in a roofline that was considerably higher than the roof of the main grandstand, leaving a visible gap between the two. At that point the wooden left-field bleachers were also replaced by a large concrete deck that ran from the foul pole across left field and into center field. The first-base pavilion remained single-decked. The first attempt at a high wall was constructed across right field.By the time of the 1925 World Series the right field pavilion had also been double-decked, and the angling right field wall and its scoreboard were reconstructed to align with the low right field wall, about inside of it. This also resulted in the unique inward-pointing 90° angle in center field. Both versions of the tall fence had the effect of keeping the neighbors in the adjacent row houses from watching the games for free.
Lights were installed for the 1941 season. The Senators played their first home night game on May 28.
The right-field fence was originally covered in various billboard advertisements, but in later years was painted a solid dark green. A bullpen area was built in right center field behind a short fence, providing a new target for batters. In the mid-1950s, an inner fence was erected across left and center field, to reduce the home run distances by. This inner fence stayed in place through the ballpark's final season, 1961. By 1961, the temporary left-field bleachers had been removed.
Dimensions
Once the large left-field bleacher was completed, the outfield dimensions were fairly well set, but there were tweaks from time to time.The left field distance was reported as as late as winter 1936-1937, but that was misleading. The left field foul line stopped at the corner of the box seat railing, while fair territory extended more than 40 feet to the bleacher wall. After some reconfiguration, the line went all the way to the bleacher wall, and in winter 1937-1938 was reported as. By spring of 1943, that figure had been revised to and posted as such.
- Center field was generally reported as, but there was some vagueness about preciscely where that 426 was measured to. The actual straightaway center field spot was never marked.
- The center field "point", to the right of straightaway center, and where the flagpole was located, was reported as or.
- The right field foul line was typically reported as.
The idea was discussed again in the winter of 1952-1953, but nothing was done.
Clark died in October 1955. Calvin inherited the club, and immediately took the opportunity to finally do something about the left field area. Within a month, reduction of the left field area was announced.
The first step was to install a fenced-in bullpen at the end of the left field line. This reduced the distance from to. This came just in time to benefit their new young sluggers Roy Sievers, Harmon Killebrew and Jim Lemon.
At that time, the club determined that the right field marker of was incorrect, and revised it to.
For the 1956 season, the Senators revived the 1950 plan, installing several rows of seats across left field. This reduced left field to and left-center to.
For the final season, 1961, the inner fences and stands were removed except for the left field corner bullpen. The final left field distance was and center field was reported as.
Photos of the ballpark during the 1940s and 1950s, along with baseball guide information, reveal the various other distance markers:
- - left center field angle
- Direct center field remained unmarked
- - center field "point"
- - left corner of bullpen
- - right corner of bullpen / left of scoreboard
- - right of scoreboard
- - right field foul line