In 1922, the Brooklyn Dodgers agreed to hold their spring training in Clearwater if the city created an appropriate venue. After the City Council decided to issue $25,000 in bonds, the city broke ground on Clearwater Athletic Field in December 1922 to construct the field and a 2,000-seat wooden grandstand. Home plate stood at what is now the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Seminole Street, left field ran parallel to Palmetto Street, and right field ran parallel to North Martin Luther King Junior Avenue. Players dressed in a wooden clubhouse off the third-base line, stayed downtown at the New Fort Harrison Hotel, and walked to and from practice. Professional and minor league teams that used the field as their training home included the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1923 to 1932 and 1936 to 1941, the Clearwater Pelicans in 1924, the Newark Bears from 1933 to 1935, the Cleveland Indians in 1942 and 1946, the Clearwater Bombers professional softball team from 1945 to 1954, the Philadelphia Phillies from 1947 to 1954, and the Negro League Clearwater Black Sox in 1952. The grandstand was destroyed by fire in 1956, but the remaining field was sometimes used for team practice and as a parking lot for games at nearby Jack Russell Stadium.