This article is brought to you by Blank Kim Injury Law, the medical malpractice lawyers of Memorial Stadium. We encourage you to learn more about the history of this historic site.
Memorial Stadium was a multi-sport stadium in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Bounded by Ellerslie Ave. to the west, 36th St. to the north, Ednor Rd. to the east, and 33rd Street Blvd. to the south, it was once home to the former Venable Park that got turned into the Venable Stadium, Baltimore Stadium or Municipal Stadium in 1922. In the middle of 1954, reconstruction of the stadium was completed. It was then renamed Memorial Stadium and often is known as The Old Gray Lady of 33rd Street and The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum.
Started out as Baltimore Stadium, it was designed by Albert W. Lewis and Pleasants Pennington and built over a six-month period on the site of the former Venable Park. The stadium was owned by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and operated by the city's Board of Park Commissioners. It seated approximately 70,000 to 80,000 people and featured a large stone gateway with old Greco-Roman style colonnade and porticoes.
The stadium served as a football stadium for public and private high school and college-level games. In the summer of 1944, it was also used as a baseball park by the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. When the minor league baseball team won the International League championship and the Junior World Series and the crowd filled the Baltimore Stadium, the Major Leagues and their team owners saw Baltimore as a potential place to move their teams to. After Babe Ruth's death in August 1948, the stadium was renamed Babe Ruth Stadium to honor him.
Because of the Oriole's success and the presence of professional football, the City decided to rebuild the stadium into that of a major league caliber. Headed by Baltimore mayor Thomas L.J. D'Alesandro, Jr., two horseshoe-shaped decks were built to host football and baseball games. A large memorial plague was added over the entrance of the stadium in the late spring and early summer of 1954.
This crowning touch came after the stadium's opening day on April 15, 1954. On that day, thousands of Baltimoreans watched as the new Orioles – the St. Louis Browns of the American League – paraded from the Baltimore City Hall downtown to Memorial Stadium for their first home game. In total, the project cost the city $6.5 million. The stadium was renamed again to Memorial Stadium in honor of America's military veterans and the thousands of those who died in World War II.
The teams that have been hosted at the stadium include:
High School Football -
University and Military Academies -
Professional Football -
Professional Baseball -
In the late 1990s, the City of Baltimore decided to abandon Memorial Stadium in favor of the new ballpark downtown. Many protests were made by residents in the neighborhood but to no avail. The most favorable proposal that Mayor Martin J. O'Malley Got was to completely raze the stadium. In April of 2001, demolition of the historic stadium began. In 2002, around 10,000 cubic yards of concrete rubble from the stadium was used to build an artificial reef over a 6-acre site in the Chesapeake Bay that was three miles west of Tolchester Beach.
As of 2005, the largest YMCA (Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Y in Waverly) facility is housed on the former site of Memorial Stadium. It is also home to a mixed-income community consisting of four apartment complexes for seniors in Baltimore City called "Stadium Place." In 2010, Cal Ripken Senior Youth Development Field, a new recreational baseball and football field, was developed, with its home plate in the same location as that of Memorial Stadium. The World War II veterans memorial is still present on the site.
Be sure to read our other articles on communities like Madison-Eastend, Maryland.
Were you a victim of medical negligence? Contact our Memorial Stadium medical malpractice attorneys today to get the justice and compensation you are entitled to. Call now for more information.
Blank Kim Injury Law
2001 Eastern Ave #1,
Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
(410) 762-4569
