Roosevelt Stadium
| Roosevelt Stadium | |
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 Stadium entrance c. 1940 |
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| Full name | Jersey City Roosevelt Stadium |
| Location | Danforth Ave. & New Jersey Route 1 (now New Jersey Route 440) Jersey City, New Jersey |
| Built | 1936 |
| Opened | April 23, 1937 |
| Demolished | 1985 |
| Owner | Jersey City |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction cost | $1,500,000 |
| Architect | Christian H. Ziegler |
| Capacity | 24,000 |
| Field dimensions | Left - 330 ft. Left Center - 377 ft. Center - 411 ft. Right Center - 377 ft. Right - 330 ft. |
| Tenants | |
| Brooklyn Dodgers (MLB) (1956-1957, 15 games) Jersey City Giants (IL) (1937-1950) Jersey City Jerseys (IL) (1960-1961) Jersey City Indians (EL) (1977) Jersey City A's (EL) (1978) |
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Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball park at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey. It opened in April 1937 and hosted high-minor league baseball, fifteen major league baseball games, plus championship boxing matches, top-name musical acts, an annual championship drum and bugle corps competition known as "The Dream", important regional high school football and even soccer matches. It was demolished in 1985.
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History[edit]
Construction[edit]
On June 5, 1929, Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague announced his plans to construct a 50,000-seat municipal stadium in Jersey City to surround a field 500 feet long by 400 feet wide, that would be dedicated to the memory of the city's war dead. It was expected to cost $500,000 and be built by Spring 1930. Mayor Hague planned for the stadium to have 35,000 permanent seats with ground space for an additional 15,000. It would be a multi-purpose stadium for baseball, football, track and field events, and boxing.[1]
Roosevelt Stadium was finally built in 1937, as a Works Progress Administration project on the grounds of what was the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport was operated by Eddie August Schneider starting in 1935.[2][3] It was named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the author of that New Deal agency. It was designed in Art Deco style.
The ballpark's opening was scheduled for April 22, 1937 with the opening of the 1937 International League season. Mayor Hague declared a half-holiday for the city's schools and employees. New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham was expected at the opener along with Senator Harry Moore.[4] Rain washed out the planned events and the opening was moved back to April 23 with Mayor Hague throwing out the first pitch and Sen. Moore and owner Horace Stoneham on hand for the ballpark's dedication.[5]
Sports[edit]
Initially constructed as a home field for Jersey City's International League affiliate of the New York Giants, the stadium later saw its most common use for high school football, as Jersey City's William L. Dickinson, James J. Ferris, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Snyder high schools and the city's major parochial schools, Hudson Catholic and St. Peter's Prep, all used the stadium, particularly on Thanksgiving Day, when Dickinson and St. Peter's would sell it out. It was the site, in September 1973, of the game that set the New Jersey state record for consecutive losses by a high school football team, when Dickinson High School lost to Hudson Catholic by the score of 22-0. Jersey City State College (New Jersey City University)Played their home football games on Friday nights at Roosevelt stadium during the 1970s.
It was used for fifteen "home" games by the Brooklyn Dodgers during their last two seasons in Brooklyn - seven in 1956 and eight in 1957.[6] The games were played partly as a negotiating tactic with the Borough of Brooklyn, in pursuit of a new stadium to replace Ebbets Field.[7] While it had just 24,000 seats as opposed to Ebbets Field's 31,497, Roosevelt Stadium had 10,000 parking spaces compared to Ebbets Field's 700. The Dodgers' negotiation came to naught, and the team moved to Los Angeles, California in 1958.[8]
It was also the home field of the Jersey City Giants, a farm team of the New York Giants in the Triple-A International League from 1937 to 1950, the Jersey City Jerseys of the IL in 1960 and 1961, the Jersey City Indians of the Double-A Eastern League in 1977 and, following a change in minor-league affiliation, the Jersey City A's of the EL in 1978.
On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson. In his five trips to the plate, Robinson made four hits, including a three-run homer, scored four runs and drove in three; he also stole two bases in the Royals 14-1 victory.
The Giants finished first in the IL in 1939 and 1947, but no Jersey City team ever went on to win a pennant in postseason play. Hague routinely hawked opening day tickets for "Little Giants" games, selling 40,000 seats in a stadium that held only 24,000. When asked about the discrepancy, he was reported to have said, "Hell of a crowd in the Men's Rooms."
In 1940, former heavyweight champion Max Baer beat "Two Ton Tony" Galento at Roosevelt Stadium, and Marcel Cerdan defeated Tony Zale in a middleweight fight. In 1950, Sugar Ray Robinson defended his welterweight title.
In 1971, the stadium was selected to host an NASL and international soccer double-header. Bologna were to meet West Ham United while the New York Cosmos were to play the Dallas Tornado in the opener. A week later, Santos (Brazil) were scheduled to meet Bologna with Pelé announced. The first doubleheader was set for Yankee Stadium in NY but the contract that the Cosmos had with the Yankees allowed for a "weather clause" in which the baseball team could cancel if bad weather conditions posed a potential threat to the field.[9]
Music[edit]
The stadium saw sporadic use as a music venue during its final years of existence. Most notably, the Grateful Dead employed the space as one of their principal Metropolitan New York venues in the mid-1970s after the demise of the Fillmore East, performing at the stadium six times between 1972 and 1976. Yes, The Allman Brothers Band, James Brown, The Band, The Beach Boys, The Eagles, KISS, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Tony Bennett, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Alice Cooper also performed at the stadium.
Drum and Bugle Corps[edit]
Each summer from 1949 through 1980 the stadium was host to one of the most prestigious drum and bugle corps championships, The National Dream. During that span, over 100 of the country's most elite competitive drum and bugle corps met to battle it out on the stadium's sun-baked field vying be crowned Dream Champion. Famed corps such as the Newark's Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights and St. Lucy's Cadets, Bayonne's St. Andrew's Bridgemen, the Garfield Cadets, Blue Rock, and many more from around the nation met in Jersey City each summer.
Demolition[edit]
In November 1982, the Jersey City City Council voted to demolish the stadium.[10] It was finally demolished in 1985,[11] and a gated community named Droyer's Point opened on the site in 1987.
Photo gallery[edit]
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1937–1950: home to the Jersey City Giants of the International League
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Also a football hub where local high school teams squared off on the gridiron
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Soccer game in 1960; in the 1970s, NASL soccer came to the stadium
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Stadium awaited demise three years after the 1982 Council demolition vote
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Christian Ziegler's stylish Art Deco flair is still visible through the 1984 weeds
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Down to smallest detail, intertwined "RS" motif on seats was moderne touch
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Roosevelt Stadium press box loomed over the field on the grandstand roof
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Scoreboard posted major league Dodgers' totals for 7 games in 1950s; 1984 photo
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Doomed structures: Twin Towers, faintly visible from the Roosevelt grandstand
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Today a gated community sits atop the site of the dugout of baseball past
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Aerial view
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Jersey City Plans Stadium to Seat 50,000 As $500,000 Memorial to Her Soldier Dead.". New York Times. 1929-06-06. p. 21.
- ^ "Jersey City to Get WPA Stadium Fund. Mayor Hague Reports Application for $800,000 Approved for Arena at Airport.". New York Times. September 26, 1935, Thursday. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City announced yesterday he had been informed that the Works Progress Administration had approved the city's application for an $800,000 grant to build a municipal sports stadium."
- ^ "Two In Plane Escape In Newark Bay Crash. Schneider, Ex-Transcontinental Record-Holder, And Student Pilot Rescued By Police.". New York Times. May 16, 1935. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "Two aviators escaped with only minor bruises and a thorough wetting last night when their three-seat, open-cockpit biplane developed motor trouble soon after taking off from the Jersey City Airport and fell into Newark Bay 200 feet off Droyer's Point, Jersey City. The men were rescued by police, who went to their aid in a collapsible rowboat kept at the field. ... The plane [had] taken off at 7 pm [piloted] by Edward Schneider, 23 years old, of 209 Sip Avenue, Jersey City, former holder of the junior transcontinental plane record and manager of the airport since January 1, 1935."
- ^ Kingsley Childs (1937-04-22). "International League to Begin Fifty-Fourth Season Today; JERSEY CITY READY FOR GALA OPENING". New York Times.
- ^ Arthur J. Daly (1937-04-23). "JERSEY CITY EAGER TO SEE NEW CLUB; Opener, Put Back Because of Rain, Is Expected to Draw 30,000 Fans Today". New York Times. p. 26.
- ^ "Dodgers Ballparks". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
- ^ "Doby Hits 500 Foot Homer for Griffith Stadium Record". The Milwaukee Journal. May 26, 1949. Retrieved 2011-07-24.
- ^ Stout, Glenn; Johnson, Richard A. (2004). The Dodgers: 120 years of Dodgers baseball. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 206. ISBN 0-618-21355-4.
- ^ The Ukrainian Weekly, June 5, 1971
- ^ Joseph Malinconico (1982-11-28). "ROOSEVELT STADIUM: GLORY FADING FAST". New York Times.
- ^ Jim Hague. "Bidding Giants Stadium a farewell" The Union City Reporter; January 10, 2010; Page 10
External links[edit]
- Info about the stadium
- Info about the Grateful Dead concert
- Collection of photos and drawings
- Digital Ballparks: Roosevelt Stadium
- MLB games at Roosevelt Stadium
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- Defunct baseball venues
- Defunct Major League Baseball venues
- Sports venues in New Jersey
- Demolished sports venues in the United States
- Brooklyn Dodgers
- Buildings and structures in Jersey City, New Jersey
- Culture of Jersey City, New Jersey
- Sports in Hudson County, New Jersey
- Art Deco architecture in New Jersey
- Works Progress Administration in New Jersey
- Destroyed landmarks in the United States
