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Recreation Park (known at various times as Union Park, 3A Park, and the Coliseum) was a sporting grounds and
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 ...
that stood from 1865 to 1905 in Allegheny City,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, which was annexed in 1907 and became the North Side region of
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. The park was bounded by Allegheny Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Grant (now Galveston) Avenue, and Boquet (now Behan) Street. The field was the first
National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
home for the
Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...
(at the time referred to as the Alleghenys) of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
. It also hosted many football games of the Western University of Pennsylvania (today's
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
). In November 1892, the park hosted the first known
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
game that included a professional player. Only one known photograph, taken from a very distant vantage point, shows the grounds in its longtime baseball configuration. It was discovered in 2015 in a time capsule left by scientific instrument maker
John Brashear John Alfred Brashear (November 24, 1840 – April 8, 1920) was an American astronomer and instrument builder. Life and work Brashear was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, a town located 35 miles (56 km) south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ...
. A much-altered facility appears in later photos, including several newspaper shots of football games.


History

Opened in 1865 as a skating center, the park was adapted for baseball use in 1867. Known until 1885 as Union Park, the stadium had an early capacity of 2,500, and was later expanded with wooden grandstands to allow up to 17,000 spectators. After the Alleghenys moved a few blocks south in 1890, the main tenant became the
Allegheny Athletic Association The Allegheny Athletic Association was an athletic club that fielded the first ever professional American football player and later the first fully professional football team. The organization was founded in 1890 as a regional athletic club in ...
, and the grounds would eventually be referred to as 3A Park. After the turn of the 20th century, it was converted to a
velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...
called the Coliseum. In 2001, the
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
and Pirates built stadiums not far from this site.


Baseball

In the late 1860s and early 70s, Pittsburgh was home to three local amateur baseball teams—the Enterprise Club, the Xanthas, and the Olympics—which played most of their games Union Park. In 1876, the professional Allegheny club played its first game against Xantha at Union Park, winning 7–3. Allegheny lasted for three years, playing mostly other squads from the northeast within the International Association, but occasionally taking on National League teams in exhibition games. One long-remembered match took place in early May 1877, when
Pud Galvin James Francis "Pud" Galvin (December 25, 1856 – March 7, 1902) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher in the 19th century. He was MLB's first 300-game winner and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1965. Basebal ...
threw a shutout and hit a home run in a 1–0 victory over the Boston Red Stockings. In 1884, the two-year-old Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the American Association moved from Exposition Park II to Union Park. The team posted a record of 18–37 at home that season, finishing 11th in the league. The ballpark was used as a neutral site for one game in the 1885 World Series and for one game in the 1887 World Series. In 1887, owner William A. Nimick transferred the club into the National League, and on April 30, the Alleghenies defeated the Chicago White Stockings, 6–2 in front of 10,000 spectators. This was the first officially recognized contest of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise. Legend has it that, before opening game of the 1887 season, Pittsburgh's catcher Fred Carroll buried his pet monkey beneath home plate. Also during that season, local businessman Walter Brown organized an early attempt of a league for African American ballplayers, with his Pittsburgh Keystones taking up residence at the park. In 1891, after the collapse of the
Pittsburgh Burghers The Pittsburgh Burghers were a baseball team in the Players' League, a short-lived Major League that existed only for the 1890 season. The team included a number of players who had jumped from the National League's Pittsburgh Alleghenys (now th ...
baseball franchise and the
Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded American professional baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Pr ...
, the Alleghenys moved to the third incarnation of Exposition Park, which had been constructed for the Burghers.


Football

On November 12, 1892, the Allegheny Athletic Association football team defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in the first known American football game to feature a professional player. The team had hired
Pudge Heffelfinger William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the greatest lineman of his time, and the first athlete to play American football p ...
, an
all-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...
from
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, for $500. Decades later, the
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...
discovered a page torn from an 1892 account ledger prepared by Allegheny manager O. D. Thompson with the line item: "Game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500." In 1902, a Pirates-backed football team, the
Pittsburgh Stars The Pittsburgh (or Pittsburg) Stars were a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1902. The team was a member of the National Football League (1902), first National Football League, which has no connection with ...
of the first National Football League, played its home games at the field. The Stars would win the league's only championship against the
Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...
, 11–0, at the field. The
Western University of Pennsylvania The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, hom ...
(WUP)
football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...
played their first game of the 1898 season at Recreation Park, defeating Westminster 5–0. Though WUP played some games at Exposition Park as early as 1900, games were hosted at Recreation Park until the University signed an exclusive contract with Exposition Park in 1904.


Cycling

Pirates owner
Barney Dreyfuss Bernhard "Barney" Dreyfuss (February 23, 1865 – February 5, 1932) was an executive in Major League Baseball who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise from 1900 to his death in 1932. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2 ...
secured a lease on the park in 1901 to block the upstart
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
from establishing a competing baseball franchise in Pittsburgh. To monetize the grounds, Dreyfuss installed a modern bicycle track to be used for motor-paced races featuring the stars of the sport. Baseball umpire and boxing referee
Tim Hurst Timothy Carroll Hurst (June 30, 1865 – June 4, 1915) was an American sports official who worked as an umpire and manager in Major League Baseball and as a boxing referee in championship fights. His baseball umpiring career lasted 16 seasons f ...
managed the facility, which opened in May 1902 under a name variously spelled as "Colosseum" or "Coliseum." The track, a smooth wooden oval with bankings, encompassed a multipurpose field. Surrounding the track was new seating for 7,000 spectators, including covered grandstands on the north and south sides and open bleachers. The venture proved a failure: Cycling did not catch on as a spectator sport, and although the stadium found alternative use as a football venue, there was not enough football to bring sufficient revenue. No longer fearing an invasion by the American League, (See also "Pittsburg Points" on the same page.) Dreyfuss let the lease expire in April 1904. The track was torn down and the grounds turned back over to the owners.


Other uses

Beyond simply major sporting events, the park often also doubled as a venue for circuses, carnivals, various ethnic and holiday celebrations, and track meets. Before the Exposition grounds were used for major gatherings, Union Park was a main local gathering place that could easily and closely accommodate large crowds for exhibitors. Popular national figures such as Adam Forepaugh and
P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was ...
would hold their shows here, spending up to three days before moving off to one-night shows in smaller towns. The park sat next to the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, extending the PRR west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, Illinois. It included the current Norfolk Southern-ow ...
. Recreation Park has a reference in the city directory as late as 1914, but the open land was soon covered over by various industrial buildings, since the early 1900s.


Notes


References


External links


1893 Sanborn map showing the ballpark

Flickr album
with various photos of the park in its "Colosseum" phase {{Pittsburgh sports Sports venues in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pirates stadiums Defunct Major League Baseball venues Pittsburgh Panthers football venues Defunct college football venues Baseball venues in Pennsylvania National Football League (1902) venues