Municipal Stadium (Baltimore)
| "The Old Grey Lady of 33rd Street" "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum" |
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| Location | 900 East 33rd Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218 |
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| Coordinates | 39°19′46″N 76°36′5″W / 39.32944°N 76.60139°WCoordinates: 39°19′46″N 76°36′5″W / 39.32944°N 76.60139°W |
| Owner | City of Baltimore |
| Operator | Maryland Stadium Authority |
| Capacity | 31,000 (1950) 47,855 (1953) 53,371 (1991) |
| Field size |
Left Field – 309 ft Left-Center – 446 ft (1954), 378 ft (1990) Center Field – 445 ft (1954), 405 ft (1980) Right-Center – 446 ft (1954), 378 ft (1990) Right Field – 309 ft |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1921 (first version) 1949 (second version) |
| Opened | December 2, 1922 (first version) April 20, 1950 (second version) |
| Closed | December 14, 1997 |
| Demolished | February 15, 2002 |
| Construction cost | US$6.5 million ($64.7 million in 2016 dollars) |
| Architect | L.P. Kooken Company |
| Structural engineer | REL Williams |
| General contractor | DeLucca-Davis/Joseph F. Hughes |
| Tenants | |
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Baltimore Orioles (IL) (mid-season 1944–1953) Baltimore Colts (AAFC / NFL) (1947–1950) Baltimore Colts (NFL) (1953–1983) Baltimore Orioles (MLB) (1954–1991) Baltimore Bays (NASL) (1967–1968) Baltimore Comets (NASL) (1974–1975) Bowie Baysox (EL) (1993) Baltimore Stallions (CFL) (1994–1995) Baltimore Ravens (NFL) (1996–1997) |
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Memorial Stadium was a sports stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street (aka 33rd Street Boulevard or renamed "Babe Ruth Plaza") on an oversized block (officially designated as Venable Park, a former city park from the 1920s) also bounded by Ellerslie Avenue (west), 36th Street (north), and Ednor Road (east). Two different stadiums were located here, a 1922 version known as "Baltimore Stadium", or "Municipal Stadium", or sometimes 'Venable Stadium', and, for a time, "Babe Ruth Stadium" in reference to the then-recently deceased Baltimore native. The rebuilt multi-sport stadium, when reconstruction (expansion to an upper deck) was completed in the summer of 1954, would become known as "Memorial Stadium". The stadium was also known as "The Old Gray Lady of 33rd Street", and also (for Colts games) as "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum."
This pair of structures hosted the following teams:
Memorial Stadium started out in life as Municipal Stadium, also known as Baltimore Stadium, and as Venable Stadium. Designed by Pleasants Pennington and Albert W. Lewis, it was built in 1922 over a six-month period at the urging of the Mayor, William F. Broening (1870–1953, served 1919–1923, 1927–1931), in a previously undeveloped area just north beyond the City's iconic rows of rowhouses where they had reached by the 1920s and among large 19th Century country estates of the wealthy in the northeastern wedge of the City. Constructed in the former Venable Park, established in the early 20th Century, the Stadium was operated by the City's Board of Park Commissioners on behalf of the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks. It was primarily a football stadium, a large horseshoe with an earthen-mound exterior and its open end with a large stone gateway of a Greek/Roman columnade and porticoes on the open-faced south side facing the new 33rd Street boulevard/parkway which had just recently been cut through east to west.
In its early years it hosted various public and private high school and college-level games, including the annual "City – Poly Game" on the regular Thanksgiving Day "double-header where the "Collegians" (later known as the "Black Knights" in reference to their iconic "Castle on the Hill") of Baltimore City College opposed its rival Baltimore Polytechnic Institute "Engineers" (since 1889), along with the Roman Catholic high schools' "Calvert Hall – Loyola" Game pitting the Cardinals of Calvert Hall College against Loyola High School at Blakefield's Dons before crowds of school students, parents, alumni and the city's sports fans numbering 30,000. Also occasional home games for the University of Maryland at College Park's "Terrapins" football and the home team favorites United States Naval Academy (at Annapolis) "Midshipmen" versus the United States Military Academy at West Point's "Cadets" (also known later as the "Black Knights") in several Army-Navy Games, attracting a national audience and media coverage.
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