Congress Street Grounds

Brotherhood Grounds
Congress Street Grounds' pavilion nearing completion, 1890. Only known photo of the exterior of the ballpark.
Interactive map of Congress Street Grounds
Location	Boston,Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′5″N71°2′49″W / 42.35139°N 71.04694°W /42.35139; -71.04694
Owner	Boston Wharf Company
Capacity	14,000
Field size	Left Field – 250 feet (76 m)[1]
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1890
Opened	1890
Closed	1896
Demolished	1896
Tenants
Boston Reds (PL /AA) (1890–1891) Boston Reds (NEL) (1893) Boston Beaneaters (NL) (1894)

Congress Street Grounds is a formerbaseball ground located inBoston,Massachusetts. The ballpark, as the name implies, was alongCongress Street, near the intersection of Thompson Place, and not far from theFort Point Channel on South Boston Flats, a newly filled in piece of land onBoston Harbor.^[2] The ground was home to theBoston Reds,^[3] that played in thePlayers' League in1890 and theAmerican Association in1891.^[4]

Although a short-lived facility, the ballpark witnessed some significant history. First, its occupants won league pennants in their two years of existence. Despite its success, the club was dropped during the NL-AA merger of 1892, as there was already an NL entry in Boston.

Then, between May and June 1894, Congress Street Grounds was the home to theBoston Beaneaters while their home grounds, theSouth End Grounds, were being rebuilt after theGreat Roxbury Fire of May 15, 1894. It had a close left field fence, which benefited Boston'sBobby Lowe just a couple of weeks later, on May 30, 1894, as he became the first batter to hit four home runs in a single game, all of them down the line in left field.

In parts of the years between 1892 and autumn of 1896, the field was used for various local sports, including Gaelic football, hurling, and track-and-field events.^[5] By the end of 1896, the ballpark had been dismantled and urban development took over the property.

The location is now occupied by several office buildings, and the alley behind them, which would go through the area of the outfield, was used in the 2006 filmThe Departed, in a key scene whereMartin Sheen's character is pushed off a roof.

Historic New England has a photo of the interior of the park.

• Historic New England

• 
  Congress Street Grounds plan, 1889
• 
  Congress Street Grounds pass, 1891

• Tourangeau, Richard Dixie: "Remembering the Congress Street Grounds: Boston's Ball Yard of Champions from Rebel Origin to Final Clutch Swing" in The National Pastime magazine, 2004 issue, published by the Society for Americal Baseball Research.

• SABR's Baseball Biography Project
• Project Ballpark
• An 1899 map showing the site of the grounds
• SABR article about the ballpark

• Baseball venues in Boston
• Defunct baseball venues in Massachusetts
• Defunct sports venues in Boston
• Players' League venues

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages using infobox mapframe without shape links in Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension