Sports Temples of Boston: Boston Arena

Congress Street Grounds

Title: Detail of Plate 30 of the 1891 Atlas for the City of Boston, South Boston, showing the Congress Street Grounds

Date: 1891

Creator: George W. and Walter S. Bromley, Civil Engineers

Original Media: 22½" x 33" hand colored lithograph

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The Congress Street Grounds (also known as the Brotherhood Grounds) is an obscure and short-lived but important historic ballpark of Boston. Built for the Boston team of the Players League in 1890, the ballpark was located on Congress Street on the South Boston waterfront bounded on all sides by Pittsburgh Street (now Thompson Court) and Stillings Street on the sides. The ballpark had a surprisingly ornate facade on Congress Street with a pavillion that seated 3,000 with a total capacity of 16,000.

The Players League, established by players unhappy with their treatment at the hands of the National League, lasted only one season. The Congress Street Grounds became the home field for the Boston National League team when the South End Grounds burned on May 15, 1894. The Boston Nationals played at the Congress Street Grounds through June 20th, went on the road for a month and came back to Boston in July to play the rest of the season at the rebuilt South End Grounds.

Although the Nationals returned to the rebuilt South End Grounds at the start of the 1895 season, they played at the Congress Street Grounds long enough for their second baseman, Bobby Lowe, to make baseball history. On May 30, 1894, Lowe became the first major league player to hit four home runs in a single game. Lowe achieved this feat against Cincinnati. While this seems like an amazing accomplishment, it helped Lowe that the left field wall was only 250 feet from the plate.

The Boston Wharf Company, which owned most of the land in the Fort Point Channel area, built the park and it was designed by the company architect, Morton D. Safford. City of Boston tax records indicate the ballparks was probably torn down in 1896.

Sources:

McGreevey Project Draft, Chapter 6, "The Ballparks", by Glenn Stout.
Tourangeau, Richard Dixie: Essay on Congress Street Grounds in National Pastime magazine, 2004 issue, published by the Society for Americal Baseball Research.