Venable Park is a former city park located in the
Waverly neighborhood of
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, Maryland, United States.
The park opened in about 1908 and was originally called Holyrood Park. In 1910 it was renamed Venable Park, after the recently deceased president of the city park board, Richard M. Venable. ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.
Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...
'' for April 14, 1922, indicates the park boundaries as Ellerslie Avenue to the west and Gorsuch Street to the south, cut in half by 33rd Street. A new stadium was to be built on the north side of 33rd.
In 1922 the city built
Venable Stadium on the site of the former park. It gradually became known as Baltimore Municipal Stadium, or more commonly Municipal Stadium. Between 1949 and 1950 the stadium was disassembled/razed and replaced simultaneously on the same structural footprint by Baltimore's better known
Memorial Stadium. Games continued to be regularly played in the venue during this period and aerial photos from the era reveal one venue gradually disappearing while another rises.
After Memorial Stadium was razed in 2002, an apartment complex and playing field were built on the site. Some maps began to, after roughly an 80+ year absence, label a small grassy area adjacent to the apartments as Venable Park.
The south portion of the park became the site for
Eastern High School, which eventually was converted into a facility for
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
.
The novel ''Venable Park'' was released in 2010 and was re-released in April 2015 by
Loyola University Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early (educator), John Early and eight other members of the Society of Je ...
's Apprentice House.
The novel is set in 1924 in two primary locales, Venable Stadium and the former company steel town of Sparrows Point, Maryland.
References
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Parks in Baltimore