Sports Stadiums in the 1800s Were Terrifying

If cringe could kill, the medieval-themed stadiums of the mid-1800s would have victimized many. We’re starting to see colleges embrace sports and, as a result, stadiums. While the majority of teams were still utilizing the original barren field design, others were cooking up cringe few of us could imagine.

In what is sometimes considered the first ‘true’ ballpark in American history, the Union Street Grounds pictured above was cutting edge. If you ignore the ankle-annihilating field, you can appreciate additions like benches and a low fence. Ignore the mini castle-looking building sitting in the center field. That was an immovable structure that people skated around during the winter when the venue was an ice rink. Both weird medieval structures and random buildings in the field were commonplace at the time, which we will delve deeper into later.

The very low fence may not look particularly important, but it helped end a baseball pastime most people couldn’t imagine today. Outfielders should have also been nicknamed explorers because their job required traversing the wild. The sides of the field were often surrounded by bodies of water, including swamps. Hills, trash, and brush were also common barriers to the ball. How anyone managed to play sports in these circumstances is remarkable.

What the Fair?

Why did many sports venues need to look like antique medieval fairs in the second half of the 1800s? It’s unclear. But thankfully it was a short-term trend. A great example of this odd design would be the baseball-specific Eastern Park in Brooklyn that had no random buildings in the diamond. You win some, you lose some.

Although we all look back at the castle theme with confusion, we do have to give it to those architects. Around the 1880s we did make some structural advancements like grand stands. Instead of a single row at the 1862 Union Street Grounds there was now rows and rows of stands all around the field. What’s the point of turrets and spires if thousands of people can’t come and see them?

If you were lucky enough to miss the Middle Ages theme, you’re probably going to get a random building in your field. For example, the New York Giants were relocated to a field out in Staten Island in 1889 for a short time, where they had to share their field with an off-Broadway stage. During football games, the performers would protect their props on stage from flying balls. A good view from a group of people who didn’t want it.

When In Rome…

Thankfully, the castle motif didn’t stick around for long, but the new design that came at the turn of the 20th century is a few years out from where we currently are. That’ll be a breath of fresh air that we will encounter ahead. However, we do have some advancements that show some class the Romans might appreciate.

Box seats made their debut at the end of the 1800s. Some boxes were placed on top of the grandstands, which feels particularly perilous since the structural design of the stands often wasn’t particularly sturdy. Cincinnati made a name for themselves by drive-in boxes at the Palace of the Fans. A wealthy fan could have their buggy parked directly below their box on the sidelines. The fan would get out and go directly above the stable of sorts and sit in the lap of luxury practically at field level. That brings a whole new meaning to a drive-up.

There were one-off stadiums in this era that had some of the other amenities that we know and love. Locker rooms and bathrooms were present some places but didn’t become the norm until the 1900s. You may even find a beer garden at one or two stadiums, but don’t count on it.

A Shared Sports Stadium Disadvantage

No matter how fancy or simple your sports stadium was, there was one fatal flaw. Prior to the 1900s everyone used wood to build structures. Wood is a problematic material for a multitude of reasons. It can easily rot with time, it’s more prone to collapse with weight than a material like steel, and it is, of course, highly flammable.

In a society where women weren’t allowed to watch sports until the 20th century. A stigma associated with women attending games lived far beyond when it was allowed, but they typically weren’t allowed in this era at all. This is brought up because women were less likely to smoke cigarettes. The thousands of individuals in the stands were more likely to be smokers. In the 1880s males over 18 consumed roughly six pounds a person per capita. Although chewing tobacco was popular, so were cigarettes, particularly hand-rolled ones.

It’s not surprising to surmise that fires would happen often in wooden stadiums. And often they did. The Palace of the Fans had to be rebuilt three times in less than 20 years. Fires happened all the time, all over the country. We don’t have solid mortality reports for these incidents, but with the frequency of fire, it would be hard to believe people were not harmed. Our thoughts are with those individuals.

Design Flaws

Wood was the only building material available, so it’s not so much a flaw as it is an undesirable necessity. However, there were still design choices that made the stadiums more flammable. Storage wasn’t easy to incorporate in old-fashioned designs. Covering baseball fields with tarps when it rained started in the 1800s. Where did the teams store the tarps? Underneath the bleachers, of course. Along with all the trash and cigarette ash that filtered down. Tarps and trash are both highly flammable. This design flaw mixed with cigarette use was a disaster waiting to happen.

There was another design flaw that did not increase the flammability of the stadium but made escape harder. There were often limited exits at the venues, and the ones that were present often were locked or barricaded to keep fans out. If an exit were open, so many people would rush for it that it could create a stampede where people could be crushed. Would people put out their cigarettes pre-game to promote crowd safety? No chance.

In Conclusion

It seems that in the 1800s a lot of everyday life things were trying to kill people. Disease spread, farming materials were undeveloped and dangerous, and sports stadiums could go up in flames at any given moment. Sports venues upgraded quite a bit through the 1800s, but with progress there are always kinks to work out. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were no stands at most sports stadiums. By the end of the century, there were grand stands. Highly flammable, difficult to exit grand stands.

Stadiums of yesteryear walked so we could run. If they weren’t hobbled by the Achilles breaking uneven fields athletes played on. We saw the beginning of the medieval castle era and the end in a mere 20 years. What designs come up next? Will stadiums get safer in the turn of the century? Follow this series here to find out.