Hinchliffe Stadium
|
Hinchliffe Stadium
|
|
The field of Hinchliffe Stadium in winter 2009
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Maple and Liberty Streets Paterson, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°55′6″N 74°10′52″W / 40.91833°N 74.18111°WCoordinates: 40°55′6″N 74°10′52″W / 40.91833°N 74.18111°W |
| Area | 5.7 acres (2.3 ha) |
| Built | 1931-1932 |
| Architect | Olmsted Brothers |
| Architectural style | Art Deco with Mission style elements |
| NRHP Reference # | 04000223 |
| NJRHP # | 4234 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP |
March 22, 2004 (local significance error) |
| Designated NHL | March 11, 2013 |
| Designated NJRHP | January 27, 2004 |
March 22, 2004
Hinchliffe Stadium (pronounced Hinch-lif, although many pronounce it Hinch-cliff) is a 10,000-seat stadium located in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. The venue was completed in 1932 and sits on a dramatic escarpment above Paterson's National Historic Landmark Great Falls, and surrounded by the city's National Landmark Historic District, the first planned industrial settlement in the nation (chartered 1792). It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to significant Negro league baseball during America's Jim Crow era. The stadium was designated a National Historic Landmark in March 2013 and a Paterson Historic Landmark in May 2013. In December 2014 legislation passed in the United States Congress to in include the stadium in the Great Falls National Landmark District.
The stadium, a large concrete oval with near-continuous seating laid out like a classical amphitheater, was inspired by a decade-long popular "stadium movement" in the 1920s, and was finally brought to fruition through the persistent efforts of Mayor John Hinchliffe, for whom it is named. It opened on July 8, 1932, as a combination athletic facility and a "paying investment" for the working people of industrial Paterson, New Jersey, who were by then struggling through the early years of the Great Depression. Many workers laid off from the mills found work under a New Deal-financed program to provide enhancements to the stadium in 1932–34.
The stadium immediately played host to Negro League and "barnstorming" games. In 1933,the stadium's first complete season hosting baseball, Hinchliffe hosted the Colored Championship of the Nation, the Negro League equivalent of the World Series. That following year, the New York Black Yankees made the stadium their home, a tenure that lasted till 1945 and was interrupted only once, when the team booked Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island in New York for the 1938 season. After World War II, the Black Yankees left Hinchliffe and took up residency at Red Wing Stadium in Rochester, New York. Hinchliffe was also home to the New York Cubans in 1935 and 1936.
...
Wikipedia