Pelican Stadium, originally known as Heinemann Park (1915–1937), was a

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, from 1915 to 1957.

Heinemann Park namesake

Alexander Julius (A.J.) Heinemann was an officer and shareholder in the

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Confere ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

organization, but the principal owner of the Pelicans was Charles Somers. Heinemann was, however, the principal owner of the stadium and grounds where the Pelicans played. He began his career as a peanut and soda-pop vendor at

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on t ...

in New Orleans and worked his way up through the ranks. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his office at the ballpark in January 1930.

Tenants

It was most notably used by the

baseball team from 1915 through 1957. The New Orleans

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

teams, the New Orleans Black Pelicans and New Orleans Creoles, also played at the stadium. The New Orleans–St. Louis Stars also played half of their home games here in 1941. The ballpark was the

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spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

location in 1916–1920 and 1928–1939; the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

spring training site in 1922 and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

held their spring training at the ballpark in 1925–1927.

Location

The stadium was designed by New Orleans architect Emile Weil and constructed at the southeast corner of Tulane Avenue and South Carrollton Avenue in

Mid-City New Orleans Mid-City is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A sub-district of the Mid-City District Area, its boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission are: City Park Avenue, Toulouse Street, North Carrollton, Orleans Avenu ...

, an area that was only recently being developed thanks to improved

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

. A short lived

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called " White City", was on the site just before, which in turn had replaced the Pelicans prior home field, Athletic Park. The Park spanned by . Pelican Park (or Stadium) was located at Banks St. and Carrollton Avenue across the street from the present-day site of Jesuit High School. In 1914–1915, the park's wooden grandstand was disassembled and relocated three blocks down Carrollton Avenue by mules allocated by Heinemann to the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Tulane Avenue. It reopened on April 13, 1915. Pelican Stadium was bounded by Tulane Avenue (northeast, left field); South Carrollton Avenue (northwest, home plate); Gravier Street, railroad tracks, and the New Basin Canal (southwest, right field); and Pierce Street (southeast, center field). The rail yards and canal visible behind the right field area in old photos have since been replaced and covered by

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

and its approach ramps. A pair of round-roofed buildings which sat across Gravier behind right center, are still visible on

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American football

The stadium was also used for high school football. The field was laid out with one end zone between home plate and third base and the other one in front of the scoreboard. The stadium had a 9,000-seat capacity for football. In 1921, Warren Easton High School played Minden High School for the LHSAA championship at the stadium.

Boxing

Boxing matches were held at the stadium including matches that featured lightweight champion and hall of famer, Joe Brown.

Demolition

It was demolished in 1957, becoming the site of Fountainbleau Hotel, and more recently a storage company and dorms for

Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Roman Catholic, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic Historically black c ...

students. A Chick-fil-A location, which sits toward the north corner of the property, approximates the location of the infield.

External links

Sanborn map showing Pelican Stadium, 1950

Sources

*Michael Benson, ''Ballparks of North America'', McFarland, 1989, pp. 248–250. *David Borsvold, ''Cleveland Indians, The Cleveland Press Years, 1920-1982'', Arcadia Publishing, 2003, p. 32

References

{{St. Louis–New Orleans Stars New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) stadiums Defunct Negro league baseball venues American football venues in New Orleans Baseball venues in New Orleans Boston Red Sox spring training venues Boxing venues in New Orleans Cleveland Guardians spring training venues Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct boxing venues in the United States Defunct minor league baseball venues Defunct sports venues in New Orleans Demolished sports venues in Louisiana High school football venues in Louisiana New York Yankees spring training venues Sports venues completed in 1915 Sports venues demolished in 1957 1915 establishments in Louisiana 1957 disestablishments in Louisiana Emile Weil buildings