19th Century 3D Ballparks - Page 18

dfswans · 02-14-2026, 10:48 PM

Grand Avenue Park

Grand_Avenue_Park

Grand Avenue Park was the home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings during the 1875 season and again in 1876. The club competed in the National Association and later the National League, making the park one of St. Louis’s earliest professional venues. The enclosed wooden grounds featured a modest grandstand and fenced perimeter typical of the era, reflecting baseball’s transition into a structured, ticketed enterprise.

The 1875 Brown Stockings were one of the strongest clubs in the game, drawing significant crowds and elevating the city’s baseball profile. In 1876, controversy and scandal cut short the team’s stay in the National League, and Grand Avenue Park’s time as a top-level venue quickly ended. Despite its short life, it remains historically significant as the first major-league home in St. Louis.

dfswans · 02-14-2026, 10:50 PM

Jefferson Street Grounds (1864–1876)

Jefferson_Street_Grounds_1864-1876

Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia hosted leading amateur and professional clubs during baseball’s formative years, most notably the Philadelphia Athletics, who played there while competing in the National Association. The enclosed park included covered seating and attracted large crowds for important intercity matchups, helping cement Philadelphia as a baseball stronghold.

One notable feature of Jefferson Street Grounds was its shifting diamond configuration over time. Home plate was relocated more than once within the same enclosure, altering field dimensions and sightlines as the club experimented with layout and crowd accommodation. These adjustments reflected the evolving standards of professional baseball and the practical realities of fitting a regulation field into an urban setting.

dfswans · 02-14-2026, 10:51 PM

National Association Grounds (Cleveland)

National_Association_Grounds

The Cleveland National Association Grounds served as the home of the Cleveland Forest Citys during the 1871 season. The club competed in the National Association, marking Cleveland’s first entry into organized professional baseball. The grounds featured a simple wooden enclosure and basic seating, characteristic of early professional parks.

Although the Forest Citys’ tenure at the top professional level lasted just one season, the park hosted some of the city’s earliest major intercity contests. Its brief existence highlights both the ambition and instability of early professional baseball while establishing Cleveland as part of the emerging national game.

dfswans · 02-14-2026, 10:53 PM

Union Park (1891–1894 version)

Union_Park_1891-1894

Union Park in Baltimore opened in 1891 as the home of the Baltimore Orioles, who competed in the National League. The enclosed wooden structure featured expanded grandstands and improved spectator facilities compared to earlier grounds, reflecting baseball’s growing commercial appeal in the 1890s. Crowds in Baltimore were known for their intensity, giving the park a lively urban atmosphere.

In July 1894, a devastating fire destroyed much of the wooden ballpark, temporarily displacing the Orioles before reconstruction efforts followed. During the 1891–1894 period, Union Park became one of the era’s most important venues, setting the stage for Baltimore’s rise as a dominant club in the mid-1890s.

BaseballMan · 02-15-2026, 02:41 PM

Did i mention these ballparks are Amazing?
Not sure if i did or not.
I have collected 250 ballparks from all of the ballpark modders.
I don't know if i am missing any.
Might have to go through them when i have time to see if any were updated.

asrivkin · 02-15-2026, 05:00 PM

Great job, dfswans! Those look like a bunch of beauties!

I'd hoped to get Syracuse's Star Park from 1890 posted today, but it looks like it'll be a couple more days. I think Louisville Base Ball Park from 1876-1877 is the only NL park used for more than one year that's still missing, I can try and tackle that next if nobody else is working on it. I think the Troy Ball Club Grounds from 1882 would then probably be next on my list, then an assessment of what's needed and what of that has any hope of being historical vs. fictional...

asrivkin · 02-17-2026, 11:14 PM

Hi all! For today's park we go to upstate New York and the penultimate season of the major league American Association. Star Park was the usual name for the home grounds of Syracuse baseball teams, much like the name Oriole Park has served for Baltimore. There were five different Star Parks from 1878-1929, with some parks occasionally having different names as well. This is the second Star Park, and the one that lasted the longest, serving from 1885-1904. The first Star Park served the NL Syracuse Stars of 1879, which is on our collective to-do list but for which information is very scant.

This Star Park, as noted, was home to the Syracuse Stars of the American Association in 1890, their only year in that league. This was not a good team, finishing 7th and then leaving the league. After Syracuse and Rochester departed the AA at the end of 1890, only NYC and Buffalo ever represented the Empire State at the major league level, and Buffalo only did so in 1-2 year stints in off-brand major leagues or unofficially.

However, this park did host football as well during the late 1800s, including some high profile college games involving Cornell.

Google Drive link to Star Park 1890

The most useful available info for the park was an appearance on a Sanborn insurance map (included below). I interpreted the weird notch in left field as a parking area for carriages and had the wall continue straight from center to left field. There's a photograph from outside the park, which didn't seem to help much. The map has a funny structure that I wasn't sure how to interpret--clearly a two-story tower atop a one-story thing. I decided to make it another grandstand with a treehouse-style press box on top. It's not impossible that the photo shows it and it's something more like an entrance gate, but it doesn't seem to be in the right place for it?

For those keeping track at home, the background is actually from Syracuse, but not really the same part of town as the park was.

I'm off on some work travel soon, depending on my as-yet undetermined schedule I might have some free time to do a bit more on this, I might not. In either case I'll post where I think we are and reconfirm my near-term modeling plans. If there's any sort of deadline coming up where it would be useful to get something done to get it packaged with other things, please let me know!

dfswans · 03-07-2026, 03:31 PM

Hamilton Park (New Haven, Connecticut)

Hamilton_Park

Hamilton Park in New Haven served as one of the city’s early multi-purpose athletic grounds during the mid-19th century. Best known as the home field of the New Haven Elm Citys, the park hosted professional baseball during the early 1870s when the club competed in the National Association. Compared with many contemporary ballparks, Hamilton Park offered only limited spectator accommodations. A small set of wooden bleachers along one side of the field provided seating for several hundred fans, while most spectators stood along the perimeter fencing or watched from open areas around the grounds.

Like many early athletic fields, Hamilton Park was used for a variety of sporting events beyond baseball. The open grounds occasionally hosted horse racing exhibitions and other public sporting contests that took advantage of the large enclosed space. The field also served as an early site for football games played by Yale University during the formative years of college football in the 1870s. This multipurpose use was typical of early American sporting venues, where a single open field often supported several emerging sports before specialized stadiums became common.

asrivkin · 03-10-2026, 05:36 PM

Hi all,

I'm back from work travel (two weeks in Uruguay, had a great time, thanks!) and figured I'd say where I think we are with remaining 19th-century major league parks.

Here's what's missing, only counting the main ballparks used and not alternate/Sunday parks:

National League:

Louisville Base Ball Park (1876-1877)
South Street Park (Indianapolis, 1878)
Milwaukee Base Ball Grounds (1878)
Star Park (Syracuse, 1879)
Putnam Grounds (Troy, 1879)
Troy Ball Club Grounds (1882)

American Association:

Recreation Park I (Columbus, 1883-1884)
Virginia Base Ball Park (Richmond, 1884)
League Park (Toledo, 1884)
Athletic Park (Washington DC, 1884)
Wallace's Ridgewood Park (New York, 1890)
Speranza Park (Toledo, 1890)

Player's League:

Brotherhood Park (Cleveland, 1890)

Union Association:

Belair Lot (Baltimore , 1884)
Dartmouth Grounds (Boston, 1884)
Columbia Park (Altoona, 1884)
Athletic Park (Kansas City, 1884)
Keystone Park (Philadelphia, 1884)
Union St. Park (Wilmington, 1884)
Wright Street Grounds (Milwaukee, 1884)
Capitol Grounds (Washington DC, 1884)
Fort Street Grounds (St. Paul, 1884)

National Association:

Lake Park (Chicago, 1871)
National Grounds (Washington DC, 1872) [unless this is the same as dfswan's Olympics Grounds, in which case we have it!]
Waverly Fairgrounds (Elizabeth NJ, 1873)
Centennial Park (Philadelphia, 1875)
Red Stocking Park (St. Louis, 1875)

Of these, I've identified a few that I think can be modeled given material I've encountered:

Louisville Base Ball Park (1876-1877)
Troy Ball Club Grounds (1882)
Wallace's Ridgewood Park (New York, 1890)
Belair Lot (Baltimore, 1884)
Dartmouth Grounds (Boston, 1884)
Columbia Park (Altoona, 1884)
Red Stocking Park (St. Louis, 1875)

There are also a few that I think are going to be exceedingly difficult given what I have (haven't) found so far, but that have reasonable stand-ins:

Lake Park (Chicago, 1871): Use Lake Front Park or 23rd Street Grounds
Brotherhood Park (Cleveland 1890): Use Cleveland National League Park (1889-1890)

By my reckoning, that leaves something like 18 in a middle space where some more research may or may not pay off--I think the Milwaukee parks in particular could have information out there. I believe St. Paul is on dfswan's current to-do list, as well. The next ones I'm going to try and tackle will probably be drawn from that numbered list of 7, probably Louisville and Ridgewood Park.

If there's another version of the grand mod being prepared, I can switch over to making a generic park to serve all the unhoused teams my top priority if needed...

LansdowneSt · 03-14-2026, 09:18 AM

To those on Steam, with his permission, I have asrivkin's parks now on the Steam Workshop.

dfswans, let me know if you want yours up there too. Or if you are on Steam, if you want me to walk you how to put them up and maintain them yourself. It's only incremental work for me, just happy to get some more of the forum work out to the Workshop as a lot of people never come by the forum.

RUKen · 03-19-2026, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asrivkin

Here's what's missing, only counting the main ballparks used and not alternate/Sunday parks:

Player's League:

Brotherhood Park (Cleveland, 1890)

There are also a few that I think are going to be exceedingly difficult given what I have (haven't) found so far, but that have reasonable stand-ins:

Brotherhood Park (Cleveland 1890): Use Cleveland National League Park (1889-1890)

I've attached below a partial image of Brotherhood Park in Cleveland, which was built adjacent to an amusement park.

asrivkin · 03-25-2026, 03:57 PM

Thanks for posting this! I'd actually run across it before, but there's also a lot of sites that identify this picture as from the Silver Lake Amusement Park near Akron rather than Brotherhood Park, and while I've never found Brotherhood Park depicted on a period map, its reported location is next to train tracks and doesn't seem to match this are. So I think this is certainly unproven as a picture of Brotherhood Park, at best.

asrivkin · 03-25-2026, 04:23 PM

I'm off on vacation (hi from a port in Baja!) and that means I have a bit of free time to finally get a bit more progress on the to-do list! I am also, however, having trouble getting Steam to boot up here, so I'm afraid the screenshots below will be minimal...

Anyhow, here's something to represent Louisville Base Ball Park, home of the Louisville Grays. This team played two years in the NL and is (unfortunately) best known as the perpetrators of the worst pre-Black Sox gambling scandal in MLB history. There is an article about the park itself (sort of) on the SABR website.

Google Drive link to Louisville Base Ball Park

I expected more information than I had, and while I started the park thinking I could be pretty historical, I think it's more historical-flavored. :\ Most accounts say the grandstand was inspired by Hartford's, so I let myself be inspired by dfswan'sHartford model. At first I was considering using Churchill Downs as a model, since it was built at about the same time in the same city, but it turns out the iconic architecture of Churchill Downs showed up in the 1890s. I also couldn't find a 3D model of the racetrack anywhere for free, or I probably would have used it anyhow.

This model is only about half the width of the stated size of the lot in a few sources, but it's very similar in size many of the other contemporary parks we have in this thread, and while there is some humor to having a Kentucky ball team living in a "double wide" I don't think from a design point of view it makes a ton of sense. So, absent a real historical-based depiction being unearthed, I think this is as good as we can do. The background is from present-day Louisville, if not quite in the same part of town as the ballpark itself was sited.

By my reckoning this finishes off the NL for 1876-1877, and was the last missing multi-year ballpark for the NL. As always, comments/questions are welcome and I hope you enjoy it!

micropterus58 · 03-26-2026, 10:59 AM

I thought you were on vacation. LOL. Enjoy the sun and beach or do you make ballparks while you are at the beach?

asrivkin · 03-26-2026, 11:27 AM

Ha! Not quite so bad as that! We're on a cruise, and it's a sea day, and we tend to be relax in our cabin on our balcony folks rather than sit on a recliner by the pool folks.

So, since I was online to read the news anyhow, and since I'd had this park finished and uploading it was on my to-do list, I figured I'd just do it. If it makes you feel any better, I had a piña colada as I was posting.

asrivkin · 04-12-2026, 02:24 PM

In 1880, Troy was the 6th-largest city in New York state, with a bit less than 60,000 people. It was not even the largest city in the immediate area, with Albany 5 miles way and 50% bigger. However, it had an entry in the National League, the only city in the state other than Buffalo that could make that claim in 1880. The Trojans lasted for four years in the NL, finishing as high as 4th place but never reaching .500 in a season. Five Hall of Famers played for the Trojans, including standouts like Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, and Dan Brouthers.

In their final season, the Trojans played at the Troy Ball Club Grounds, across the Hudson from Troy in West Troy (today's Watervliet). That's the model I've got for you today!

When William Hulbert died in 1882, his weird vendetta against the cities of New York and Philadelphia died with him and Troy and Worcester were expelled from the NL to make way for the two metropolises. These two teams met in Worcester to end their seasons and their tenures in the NL, drawing 6 paid attendees to their penultimate game, and 25 to their final game.

Google Drive link for Troy Ball Club Grounds

Lots of preamble today because there's not a lot to say about the model, exactly. It shows up on a Sanborn Map from 1885, which was why I decided to try it, but as I was doing the modeling I realized that the placement of the grandstand and the road meant a really short left field line if the grandstand was behind home plate and looking toward the outfield. So I decided to orient things so the grandstand was along the first base line. I honestly have no idea whether this is what they did, or if the map is wrong, or the road wasn't there or what, but I think it's as good a guess as any?

This completes the NL back to 1880, inclusive. I haven't found much for the remaining NL parks, and am putting them on the back burner for now. I think the next ones up for me are going to be Wallace's Ridgewood Park (AA 1890) or one of three Union Association Parks (Belair Lot, Dartmouth Grounds, Columbia Grounds in Altoona). I also did a retrofit of Silvam's Borchert Field to be more 1890s-ish, which I plan to post.

But I do think we are close to running out of any pictorial depictions to work from, whether map or sketch, for missing parks. Maybe there are some things we can dig up that aren't freely found on the internet, and maybe there are purely text descriptions we can work from, but I think we are already well past what I was imagining we'd be able to do when we started!

BaseballMan · Yesterday, 02:59 PM

Where there is no data, maybe you could compare the park to the other ballparks you've made for that time period and use your imagination for the rest. Unless you put modern items in it like a nearby airport i don't think anyone would complain. Its either nothing, trust your judgement or do it ourselves. Since i don't have the skills i will just trust your judgement if you decide to do the ballparks with very little data.

Or you could find other eras in which ballparks are lacking if there are any.
Or maybe improve the ballparks we have.
As long as you enjoy it and have the time for it we'll keep enjoy using them.

02-14-2026, 10:48 PM	#341
dfswans Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2023 Posts: 37	Grand Avenue Park Grand_Avenue_Park Grand Avenue Park was the home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings during the 1875 season and again in 1876. The club competed in the National Association and later the National League, making the park one of St. Louis’s earliest professional venues. The enclosed wooden grounds featured a modest grandstand and fenced perimeter typical of the era, reflecting baseball’s transition into a structured, ticketed enterprise. The 1875 Brown Stockings were one of the strongest clubs in the game, drawing significant crowds and elevating the city’s baseball profile. In 1876, controversy and scandal cut short the team’s stay in the National League, and Grand Avenue Park’s time as a top-level venue quickly ended. Despite its short life, it remains historically significant as the first major-league home in St. Louis. Attached Images

02-14-2026, 10:50 PM	#342
dfswans Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2023 Posts: 37	Jefferson Street Grounds (1864–1876) Jefferson_Street_Grounds_1864-1876 Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia hosted leading amateur and professional clubs during baseball’s formative years, most notably the Philadelphia Athletics, who played there while competing in the National Association. The enclosed park included covered seating and attracted large crowds for important intercity matchups, helping cement Philadelphia as a baseball stronghold. One notable feature of Jefferson Street Grounds was its shifting diamond configuration over time. Home plate was relocated more than once within the same enclosure, altering field dimensions and sightlines as the club experimented with layout and crowd accommodation. These adjustments reflected the evolving standards of professional baseball and the practical realities of fitting a regulation field into an urban setting. Attached Images

02-14-2026, 10:51 PM	#343
dfswans Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2023 Posts: 37	National Association Grounds (Cleveland) National_Association_Grounds The Cleveland National Association Grounds served as the home of the Cleveland Forest Citys during the 1871 season. The club competed in the National Association, marking Cleveland’s first entry into organized professional baseball. The grounds featured a simple wooden enclosure and basic seating, characteristic of early professional parks. Although the Forest Citys’ tenure at the top professional level lasted just one season, the park hosted some of the city’s earliest major intercity contests. Its brief existence highlights both the ambition and instability of early professional baseball while establishing Cleveland as part of the emerging national game. Attached Images

02-14-2026, 10:53 PM	#344
dfswans Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2023 Posts: 37	Union Park (1891–1894 version) Union_Park_1891-1894 Union Park in Baltimore opened in 1891 as the home of the Baltimore Orioles, who competed in the National League. The enclosed wooden structure featured expanded grandstands and improved spectator facilities compared to earlier grounds, reflecting baseball’s growing commercial appeal in the 1890s. Crowds in Baltimore were known for their intensity, giving the park a lively urban atmosphere. In July 1894, a devastating fire destroyed much of the wooden ballpark, temporarily displacing the Orioles before reconstruction efforts followed. During the 1891–1894 period, Union Park became one of the era’s most important venues, setting the stage for Baltimore’s rise as a dominant club in the mid-1890s. Attached Images

02-17-2026, 11:14 PM	#347
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Syracuse Star Park 1890 Hi all! For today's park we go to upstate New York and the penultimate season of the major league American Association. Star Park was the usual name for the home grounds of Syracuse baseball teams, much like the name Oriole Park has served for Baltimore. There were five different Star Parks from 1878-1929, with some parks occasionally having different names as well. This is the second Star Park, and the one that lasted the longest, serving from 1885-1904. The first Star Park served the NL Syracuse Stars of 1879, which is on our collective to-do list but for which information is very scant. This Star Park, as noted, was home to the Syracuse Stars of the American Association in 1890, their only year in that league. This was not a good team, finishing 7th and then leaving the league. After Syracuse and Rochester departed the AA at the end of 1890, only NYC and Buffalo ever represented the Empire State at the major league level, and Buffalo only did so in 1-2 year stints in off-brand major leagues or unofficially. However, this park did host football as well during the late 1800s, including some high profile college games involving Cornell. Google Drive link to Star Park 1890 The most useful available info for the park was an appearance on a Sanborn insurance map (included below). I interpreted the weird notch in left field as a parking area for carriages and had the wall continue straight from center to left field. There's a photograph from outside the park, which didn't seem to help much. The map has a funny structure that I wasn't sure how to interpret--clearly a two-story tower atop a one-story thing. I decided to make it another grandstand with a treehouse-style press box on top. It's not impossible that the photo shows it and it's something more like an entrance gate, but it doesn't seem to be in the right place for it? For those keeping track at home, the background is actually from Syracuse, but not really the same part of town as the park was. I'm off on some work travel soon, depending on my as-yet undetermined schedule I might have some free time to do a bit more on this, I might not. In either case I'll post where I think we are and reconfirm my near-term modeling plans. If there's any sort of deadline coming up where it would be useful to get something done to get it packaged with other things, please let me know! Attached Images

02-15-2026, 02:41 PM	#345
BaseballMan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 6,634	Did i mention these ballparks are Amazing? Not sure if i did or not. I have collected 250 ballparks from all of the ballpark modders. I don't know if i am missing any. Might have to go through them when i have time to see if any were updated.

02-15-2026, 05:00 PM	#346
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Great job, dfswans! Those look like a bunch of beauties! I'd hoped to get Syracuse's Star Park from 1890 posted today, but it looks like it'll be a couple more days. I think Louisville Base Ball Park from 1876-1877 is the only NL park used for more than one year that's still missing, I can try and tackle that next if nobody else is working on it. I think the Troy Ball Club Grounds from 1882 would then probably be next on my list, then an assessment of what's needed and what of that has any hope of being historical vs. fictional...

03-07-2026, 03:31 PM	#348
dfswans Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2023 Posts: 37	Hamilton Park (New Haven, Connecticut) Hamilton_Park Hamilton Park in New Haven served as one of the city’s early multi-purpose athletic grounds during the mid-19th century. Best known as the home field of the New Haven Elm Citys, the park hosted professional baseball during the early 1870s when the club competed in the National Association. Compared with many contemporary ballparks, Hamilton Park offered only limited spectator accommodations. A small set of wooden bleachers along one side of the field provided seating for several hundred fans, while most spectators stood along the perimeter fencing or watched from open areas around the grounds. Like many early athletic fields, Hamilton Park was used for a variety of sporting events beyond baseball. The open grounds occasionally hosted horse racing exhibitions and other public sporting contests that took advantage of the large enclosed space. The field also served as an early site for football games played by Yale University during the formative years of college football in the 1870s. This multipurpose use was typical of early American sporting venues, where a single open field often supported several emerging sports before specialized stadiums became common. Attached Images

03-10-2026, 05:36 PM	#349
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Current Status Hi all, I'm back from work travel (two weeks in Uruguay, had a great time, thanks!) and figured I'd say where I think we are with remaining 19th-century major league parks. Here's what's missing, only counting the main ballparks used and not alternate/Sunday parks: National League: Louisville Base Ball Park (1876-1877) South Street Park (Indianapolis, 1878) Milwaukee Base Ball Grounds (1878) Star Park (Syracuse, 1879) Putnam Grounds (Troy, 1879) Troy Ball Club Grounds (1882) American Association: Recreation Park I (Columbus, 1883-1884) Virginia Base Ball Park (Richmond, 1884) League Park (Toledo, 1884) Athletic Park (Washington DC, 1884) Wallace's Ridgewood Park (New York, 1890) Speranza Park (Toledo, 1890) Player's League: Brotherhood Park (Cleveland, 1890) Union Association: Belair Lot (Baltimore , 1884) Dartmouth Grounds (Boston, 1884) Columbia Park (Altoona, 1884) Athletic Park (Kansas City, 1884) Keystone Park (Philadelphia, 1884) Union St. Park (Wilmington, 1884) Wright Street Grounds (Milwaukee, 1884) Capitol Grounds (Washington DC, 1884) Fort Street Grounds (St. Paul, 1884) National Association: Lake Park (Chicago, 1871) National Grounds (Washington DC, 1872) [unless this is the same as dfswan's Olympics Grounds, in which case we have it!] Waverly Fairgrounds (Elizabeth NJ, 1873) Centennial Park (Philadelphia, 1875) Red Stocking Park (St. Louis, 1875) Of these, I've identified a few that I think can be modeled given material I've encountered: Louisville Base Ball Park (1876-1877) Troy Ball Club Grounds (1882) Wallace's Ridgewood Park (New York, 1890) Belair Lot (Baltimore, 1884) Dartmouth Grounds (Boston, 1884) Columbia Park (Altoona, 1884) Red Stocking Park (St. Louis, 1875) There are also a few that I think are going to be exceedingly difficult given what I have (haven't) found so far, but that have reasonable stand-ins: Lake Park (Chicago, 1871): Use Lake Front Park or 23rd Street Grounds Brotherhood Park (Cleveland 1890): Use Cleveland National League Park (1889-1890) By my reckoning, that leaves something like 18 in a middle space where some more research may or may not pay off--I think the Milwaukee parks in particular could have information out there. I believe St. Paul is on dfswan's current to-do list, as well. The next ones I'm going to try and tackle will probably be drawn from that numbered list of 7, probably Louisville and Ridgewood Park. If there's another version of the grand mod being prepared, I can switch over to making a generic park to serve all the unhoused teams my top priority if needed...

03-14-2026, 09:18 AM	#350
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 8,072	To those on Steam, with his permission, I have asrivkin's parks now on the Steam Workshop. dfswans, let me know if you want yours up there too. Or if you are on Steam, if you want me to walk you how to put them up and maintain them yourself. It's only incremental work for me, just happy to get some more of the forum work out to the Workshop as a lot of people never come by the forum. __________________ Complete Universe Facegen Pack 2.0 (mine included) https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi...k_2.0.zip/file Just my Facegen Pack: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi..._Pack.zip/file

03-25-2026, 03:57 PM	#352
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Thanks for posting this! I'd actually run across it before, but there's also a lot of sites that identify this picture as from the Silver Lake Amusement Park near Akron rather than Brotherhood Park, and while I've never found Brotherhood Park depicted on a period map, its reported location is next to train tracks and doesn't seem to match this are. So I think this is certainly unproven as a picture of Brotherhood Park, at best.

03-25-2026, 04:23 PM	#353
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Louisville Base Ball Park I'm off on vacation (hi from a port in Baja!) and that means I have a bit of free time to finally get a bit more progress on the to-do list! I am also, however, having trouble getting Steam to boot up here, so I'm afraid the screenshots below will be minimal... Anyhow, here's something to represent Louisville Base Ball Park, home of the Louisville Grays. This team played two years in the NL and is (unfortunately) best known as the perpetrators of the worst pre-Black Sox gambling scandal in MLB history. There is an article about the park itself (sort of) on the SABR website. Google Drive link to Louisville Base Ball Park I expected more information than I had, and while I started the park thinking I could be pretty historical, I think it's more historical-flavored. :\ Most accounts say the grandstand was inspired by Hartford's, so I let myself be inspired by dfswan'sHartford model. At first I was considering using Churchill Downs as a model, since it was built at about the same time in the same city, but it turns out the iconic architecture of Churchill Downs showed up in the 1890s. I also couldn't find a 3D model of the racetrack anywhere for free, or I probably would have used it anyhow. This model is only about half the width of the stated size of the lot in a few sources, but it's very similar in size many of the other contemporary parks we have in this thread, and while there is some humor to having a Kentucky ball team living in a "double wide" I don't think from a design point of view it makes a ton of sense. So, absent a real historical-based depiction being unearthed, I think this is as good as we can do. The background is from present-day Louisville, if not quite in the same part of town as the ballpark itself was sited. By my reckoning this finishes off the NL for 1876-1877, and was the last missing multi-year ballpark for the NL. As always, comments/questions are welcome and I hope you enjoy it! Attached Images

03-26-2026, 10:59 AM	#354
micropterus58 All Star Starter Join Date: May 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 1,258	I thought you were on vacation. LOL. Enjoy the sun and beach or do you make ballparks while you are at the beach?

03-26-2026, 11:27 AM	#355
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Ha! Not quite so bad as that! We're on a cruise, and it's a sea day, and we tend to be relax in our cabin on our balcony folks rather than sit on a recliner by the pool folks. So, since I was online to read the news anyhow, and since I'd had this park finished and uploading it was on my to-do list, I figured I'd just do it. If it makes you feel any better, I had a piña colada as I was posting.

04-12-2026, 02:24 PM	#356
asrivkin Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Maryland Posts: 364	Troy Ball Club Grounds 1882 In 1880, Troy was the 6th-largest city in New York state, with a bit less than 60,000 people. It was not even the largest city in the immediate area, with Albany 5 miles way and 50% bigger. However, it had an entry in the National League, the only city in the state other than Buffalo that could make that claim in 1880. The Trojans lasted for four years in the NL, finishing as high as 4th place but never reaching .500 in a season. Five Hall of Famers played for the Trojans, including standouts like Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, and Dan Brouthers. In their final season, the Trojans played at the Troy Ball Club Grounds, across the Hudson from Troy in West Troy (today's Watervliet). That's the model I've got for you today! When William Hulbert died in 1882, his weird vendetta against the cities of New York and Philadelphia died with him and Troy and Worcester were expelled from the NL to make way for the two metropolises. These two teams met in Worcester to end their seasons and their tenures in the NL, drawing 6 paid attendees to their penultimate game, and 25 to their final game. Google Drive link for Troy Ball Club Grounds Lots of preamble today because there's not a lot to say about the model, exactly. It shows up on a Sanborn Map from 1885, which was why I decided to try it, but as I was doing the modeling I realized that the placement of the grandstand and the road meant a really short left field line if the grandstand was behind home plate and looking toward the outfield. So I decided to orient things so the grandstand was along the first base line. I honestly have no idea whether this is what they did, or if the map is wrong, or the road wasn't there or what, but I think it's as good a guess as any? This completes the NL back to 1880, inclusive. I haven't found much for the remaining NL parks, and am putting them on the back burner for now. I think the next ones up for me are going to be Wallace's Ridgewood Park (AA 1890) or one of three Union Association Parks (Belair Lot, Dartmouth Grounds, Columbia Grounds in Altoona). I also did a retrofit of Silvam's Borchert Field to be more 1890s-ish, which I plan to post. But I do think we are close to running out of any pictorial depictions to work from, whether map or sketch, for missing parks. Maybe there are some things we can dig up that aren't freely found on the internet, and maybe there are purely text descriptions we can work from, but I think we are already well past what I was imagining we'd be able to do when we started! Attached Images

Yesterday, 02:59 PM	#357
BaseballMan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 6,634	Where there is no data, maybe you could compare the park to the other ballparks you've made for that time period and use your imagination for the rest. Unless you put modern items in it like a nearby airport i don't think anyone would complain. Its either nothing, trust your judgement or do it ourselves. Since i don't have the skills i will just trust your judgement if you decide to do the ballparks with very little data. Or you could find other eras in which ballparks are lacking if there are any. Or maybe improve the ballparks we have. As long as you enjoy it and have the time for it we'll keep enjoy using them.