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Community Corner

In Gowanus: Pieces of Brooklyn's Baseball Past

Recounting the Dodgers' rise and departure in Brooklyn.

In October, 2010, when Con Edison demolished part of a wall at its Gowanus location to make room for a new structure, local historian David Dyte was there to get a piece of the action — literally.

“I was there a day later and I stole a brick,” the downtown Brooklyn resident admitted. “It’s sitting on my bookshelf.”

Though Dyte does not usually collect bricks, this one was special: It was a Brigham Brick from a wall that was part of what used to be Washington Park, a stadium where a Brooklyn baseball club called the Tip-Tops played major league ball from 1914 to 1915.

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The wall — which stands 12-feet high and 60-feet long on Third Avenue between First and Third streets in Gowanus — is the last remaining relic of an era rich with Brooklyn baseball history, a time that most famously included the rise and departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

This summer, in an effort to distinguish its historical significance, Old Stone House in Brooklyn plans to put up signs nearby the wall, according to Old Stone House executive director Kim Maier.

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The wall’s most recent stint in the spotlight was in 2001, when Con Edison proposed to demolish it to make room for a new building. A group of historians — including Greenpoint-based historian Tom Gilbert — organized to protest the construction. Working with the New York Society of American Baseball Research, the historians organized a committee to set the site’s record straight.

“All we knew about it at the time was there were rumors that it was part of this federal league ballpark,” Gilbert said. “In our research, we discovered much more than anyone previously knew.”

The group spent two years researching the wall’s history, eventually proving it existed between 1914 and 1915. They used their findings to convince Con Edison to preserve the site, and the company consequently worked with an architect to preserve part of the wall it its new building’s plan, according to Con Edison spokesperson Joy Faber.

But how did the Tip-Tops’ stadium end up on Third Avenue in the first place?

People first began playing baseball in the New York area in the 1850s, when clubs began traveling to Hoboken, New Jersey to compete in unofficial matches. Local newspapers soon caught wind of the events and the sport swiftly gained popularity. Between 1850 and 1860, the sport had grown so enormously that several baseball clubs started up in Brooklyn, including the groups such as the Ironsides, the Albions and the Atlantic Club.

Often comprised of locals from neighborhoods in the borough, these clubs were diverse in class and often played matches at JJ Byrne/Washington Park, then known as the Fifth Avenue Grounds. The site was also home to the Old Stone House, then known as the Vechte-Cortelyou House of 1699. People began bidding on the outcomes of club games in the neighborhood.

“Their games drew so much attention that bidding started up on them, then people started getting paid under the table,” said Dyte, who started the historical website BrooklynBallParks.com . “The game just grows from there because suddenly there’s money involved.”

Seeing room for business opportunity, a businessman named Charles Byrne decided to start the Brooklyn Baseball Club in 1893. The club would go on to have a host of other nicknames, but finally one stuck: the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

Byrne built the club stadium on Fifth Avenue Grounds and renamed it Washington Park, using the Old Stone House for storage. The park cost $13,000 and included a 500 by 900 foot field, a grandstand that could seat 2,500 people and an area where bystanders could gather to watch the game.

“The ground had been arranged with great care, and in the opinion of good judges was recognized as one of the finest diamonds in the State,” wrote a Brooklyn Eagle reporter who attended the park’s opening ceremony in May.

The team won the minor league inter-state championship in its first season, allowing it to move up to the major league American Association the following year. By then, Byrne had begun stealing star players from folded rosters, including players from the Cleveland National League and the New York Metropolitans. By the mid-1880s, Byrne had compiled a skilled roster. The team soon jumped to the National League, and they’ve been there ever since. In 1889, the Dodgers won their first pennant.

The Dodgers’ time in the neighborhood, however, was more short-lived. In 1891, the team relocated to Eastern Park in Brownsville. After realizing no one was willing to travel that far to watch them play, they soon returned to a much scruffier Washington Park in Brooklyn.

“Despite the fact that the Long Island railroad was out there, not many people were willing to go out there to see them play,” Dyte said. “So they came all the way back, and Washington Park was sort of damaged and out of shape, so they built a wooden stadium at a corner lot nearby.”

The new stadium was located between Fourth Avenue, First Street, Third Avenue and Third Street. The Dodgers lasted there until 1912, when they demolished it and moved out of the neighborhood once and for all. In 1914, a new major league division called the Federalist League selected the site for a new stadium, and built what local historians believe to be the brick structure that remains today.

Gilbert and Dyte disagree about whether the brick wall dates back to 1912. However, according to Gilbert, this uncertainty shouldn’t change the site’s historical significance.

“Historically it’s not that important an issue,” Gilbert said. “It’s kind of exciting to be able to say that some part of Washington Park goes back to the 19th century, or is older than Fenway Park, for instance.”

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