League Park

League Park (HM14JH)

Location: Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Allen County
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Country: United States of America
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N 41° 5.176', W 85° 8.325'

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Inscription
The first professional organized league baseball game was played here on May 4, 1871 ending in a victory for the Fort Wayne Kekiongas over the Cleveland Forest Citys by a score of 2-0. A wooden structure was built in 1883 and rebuilt numerous times over the next several decades. In 1908, Claude Varnell, whose Fort Wayne "Billikins" was a minor league team associated with the St. Louis Cardinals, rebuilt the park. This included the then unique idea of a grass infield. The field, located on the east side of Headwaters Park, was badly damaged in the great flood of 1913. It was, however, restored to be the host park to numerous semi-pro teams of Fort Wayne, such as the Lincoln Lifers and the Kips, as well as the Central League's Chiefs. Fort Wayne played one of the earliest nighttime ball games, (the very first to be played under lights was in Nantasket Bay, Massachusetts, on September 2, 1880), played between two amateur company teams using some of Thomas Edison's early incandescent lights. The game played in Fort Wayne here at League Park on June 3, 1883, was perhaps the second time a game was attempted under the lights, and was among the first games ever played under lights by a professional team. The Jenny Electric Light Company of Fort Wayne provided the lighting with seventeen of its powerful "arc lights," which were designed for outdoor lighting. Fire destroyed the stadium in 1930. A new, somewhat smaller grandstand, replaced the old ball park. By 1939, all the park buildings had been razed.
Details
HM NumberHM14JH
Tags
Placed ByCity of Fort Wayne and The Fred Zollner Foundation
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Saturday, October 11th, 2014 at 1:03am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)16T E 656333 N 4550002
Decimal Degrees41.08626667, -85.13875000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 41° 5.176', W 85° 8.325'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds41° 5' 10.56" N, 85° 8' 19.50" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)260
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 201-265 S Clinton St, Fort Wayne IN 46802, US
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