Huntington Avenue Grounds

Huntington Avenue American League Baseball Grounds is the full name of the baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts, and was the first home field for the Boston Red Sox, known informally as the "Boston Americans" before 1908, from 1901 to 1911. The stadium, built for $35,000 (equivalent to $1.28 million in 2023), was located on what is now Northeastern University, at the time across the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad tracks from the South End Grounds, home of the Boston Braves.

Location

Boston, Massachusetts

42°20′20.3″N 71°5′20.3″W / 42.338972°N 71.088972°W / 42.338972; -71.088972

Boston Red Sox

11,500

Left Field – 350 ft
Left-Center – 440 ft
Center Field – 530 ft (1901), 635 ft (1908)
Right Field – 280 ft (1901), 320 ft (1908)
Backstop – 60 ft

March 9, 1901

May 8, 1901

After 1911 season

1912

The stadium was the site of the first World Series game between the modern American and National Leagues in 1903, and also saw the first perfect game in the modern era, thrown by Cy Young on May 5, 1904. The playing field was built on a former circus lot and was extremely large by modern standards - 530 feet (160 m) to center field, later expanded to 635 feet (194 m) in 1908. It had many quirks not seen in modern baseball stadiums, including patches of sand in the outfield where grass would not grow, and a tool shed in deep center field that was in play.

The park was built on a large plot of land bounded by Huntington Avenue (northwest, left field); Rogers (now Forsyth) Street (southwest, third base); railroad tracks (southeast, first base); and various buildings to the east (right field).

The Huntington Avenue Grounds was demolished after the Red Sox left at the beginning of the 1912 season to play at Fenway Park. The Cabot Center, an indoor athletic venue belonging to Northeastern University, has stood on the Huntington Grounds' footprint since 1954. A plaque and a statue of Cy Young were erected in 1993 where the pitchers mound used to be, commemorating the history of this ballpark in what is now called World Series Way. Meanwhile, a plaque on the side of the Cabot Center (1956) marks the former location of the left field foul pole.

The Cabot facility itself is barely over a quarter mile away to the southwest from another, still-standing Boston area sports facility of that era, Matthews Arena (built in 1910), the original home of the NHL's Boston Bruins when they started play in 1924.