"The Heart of Boston Sports"
By Nate Langh and Chris Mcgrath
In early 1911, John I. Taylor, the first owner of the Boston Red Sox scouted locations across Boston for a new ball park to be built. After a plot of land between Ipswich and Lansdowne Street was found, construction of the now famous Fenway Park began. Fenway was designed and built by Osborn Engineering of Cleveland and the Charles Logue Building Company. James McLaughlin served as the main architect of the construction. The field was orientated so that the sun would not interfere with the players while they were batting. Home plate was placed in the south west corner of the field. Furthermore, the park was built with a Tapestry brick style that ran throughout the park walls. Tapestry brick was a popular architectural style in the early 1900’s and, during the time of the parks construction, was actually seen in a lot of the buildings and apartments around the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood. The method typically uses red brick and with cast-stone and stucco detail. The bricks are arranged in in decorative patterns that are often set in one plane, accented by the stucco detail. By using this style, head architect James E. McLaughlin, made Fenway a durable park.
Many renovations still had to be made as time passed because of fires, deterioration, and capacity issues. In 1933, Thomas Yawkey, purchased the team. Thomas Yawkey was famous for the renovations he made to the stadium. The park today holds about 38,000 people. Yawkey not only constructed new seats from steel, he also added a 37-foot high concrete wall which became famously known as “The Green Monster” and is Fenway park’s most significant feature. The Green Monster has the only manual scoreboard in the MLB and is a key factor in Fenway’s old-school atmosphere and authenticity.
Fenway Park is one of the most well-known locations in the city of Boston because of its history and architecture. Fenway Park is not only famous in the Boston area; it is famously known throughout the world. The Park opened its gates on April 20th 1912. It is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium still in use. The Red Sox won five championships in-between 1912 and 1918. However, they didn’t win another championship for 86 years. This became famously known as the “Curse of Bambino”. The curse was broken in 2004, but it was not until 2013 that the Red Sox won a World Series inside of Fenway Park again. When the Red Sox did break the curse in 2004, it gave closure to the city of Boston. Especially for the fans who lived through the years of losing. Each time, the Red Sox have won a world championship the streets of Boston are crowded with hundreds of thousands of people.
Fenway Park has more uses to Boston then just being a baseball field. The stadium is also used for several other types of events. Such as, being a set up for professional and college hockey games, concerts, and even skiing and snowboarding trick competitions. Fenway Park is strongly connected to the city of Boston and many Bostonians care for it deeply. When Fenway Park became 100 years old, it became listed in the National Register of Historic Places at several different levels of significance. Today, current owners of the Red Sox have committed to keeping the team playing in Fenway Park because of the history and importance the Park holds to the city of Boston. Whether you are walking past Fenway as a tourist, or singing “Sweet Caroline” during the 7th inning stretch, Fenway Park holds a special place in the hearts of Bostonians.
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Cite this Page
Nate Langh and Chris Mcgrath, “Fenway Park,” Boston History, accessed June 28, 2024, https://www.explorebostonhistory.org/items/show/26.
Related Sources
- "Fenway Park -- National Register of Historic Places Official Website--Part of the National Park Service -- Pennsylvania Railroad Depot And Baggage Room, Tuscarawas County, Ohio." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.JONES, KEVIN and L. MARA DODGE. "A Brief History of Fenway Park." Historical Journal of Massachusetts, vol. 42, no. 2, Summer2014, pp. 2-13. EBSCOhost, ezproxywit.flo.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=96976680&site=eds-live&scope=site.Nowlin, Bill. "Fenway Park (Boston)." Fenway Park (Boston) | Society for American Baseball Research. SABR, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.Allison, Robert J. A Short History of Boston. Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2004. Print."At Boston's Fenway Park, a Different Green Monster." The Christian Science Monitor, 2015. EBSCOhost, ezproxywit.flo.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgbc&AN=edsgcl.420034167&site=eds-live&scope=site.
