Recreation Park

Recreation Park was established in 1879 on land extending from Brady Street to Willis Avenue. It included the baseball field that served as the home park of the Detroit Wolverines of the National League from 1881 to 1888. On May 2, 1881, the first major league baseball game in Detroit was played there before 1,286 spectators, and after that first game against Buffalo, more than four hundred major league games were played there over eight seasons. Home plate and a wooden grandstand stood near Brady Street to the south, and fans strolled in a nearby grove of trees owned by Harper Hospital. At Mayor William G. Thompson’s suggestion, the Detroit Wolverines were organized as a major league team to play at Recreation Park. In its first years the team finished from the middle to the bottom of the National League, but it improved after pharmaceutical manufacturer Frederick K. Stearns purchased it in 1885. In 1887 the Wolverines won the National League Pennant and the national championship by defeating St. Louis of the American Association in a fifteen-game series. Poor attendance caused the Wolverines to break up after the 1888 season, and the franchise moved to Cleveland, where it finally disbanded in 1899. From 1889 to 1894 other baseball teams played at Recreation Park, and in 1894 the park was closed, the grandstand torn down, and the land subdivided. Two Wolverines, Dan Brouthers and Sam Thompson, were later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Detroit, Michigan · United States