Gill Stadium
Encyclopedia
Gill Stadium is a sport
ing stadium
located in Manchester, New Hampshire
. It is believed to be the oldest stadium constructed of concrete and steel in New England outside of the Boston area. The venue, which mainly hosts amateur baseball
and football
contests, currently has a capacity of 3,700.
in Allston
, Massachusetts
(1903), Rickwood Field
in Birmingham
, Alabama
(1910), and Fenway Park
in Boston
, Massachusetts (1912), are known to be older surviving examples of concrete-and-steel stadiums in the United States.
The Amoskeag Textile Club, which was funded by and whose members were employees of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
, constructed the grandstand. It was built on the site of Varick Park
, a mid-1890s wooden structure which itself occupied the site of a still earlier ballpark, the Beech Street Grounds
. Baseball on the site can be traced to at least 1880, when the area east of the Valley Cemetery
was known as "the Plains."
The Textile Club appears to have constructed the grandstand as part of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company's benevolence programs. Amoskeag, which employed about 17,000 people in a city of 65,000, included among its workforce a large number of immigrants. In the minds of Amoskeag managers, the most troublesome of this group were the most recent arrivals from Greece
. Recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were being blamed for the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts
, which resulted in much violence and the involvement of the radical Industrial Workers of the World
union. Amoskeag, which was not unionized, wanted no such trouble, particularly in light of the fact that IWW operatives were seen in Manchester during the Lawrence strike. The company hoped to find a way to "Americanize" its workforce, thereby giving workers a stronger connection to the company and to the United States, and to find diversionary activities to keep them from unionizing in their free time. Baseball seemed an ideal solution.
Amoskeag, along with the McElwain Shoe Company and other industries in Manchester, organized the city Manufacturers' League in 1912. The league played at three locations in Manchester, of which Varick Park was the most important. In 1913, the company constructed Textile Field to make the league appear to be more authentically "professional." The field made its debut over Memorial Day
weekend of that year, but the grandstand was not entirely completed until late July. The dedication game came in early September, when the World Champion Boston Red Sox
—playing its major-league lineup for nearly the entire game—defeated the Manufacturers' League All-Stars, 3-1. A year later, the World Champion Philadelphia Athletics defeated the All-Stars, 7-1. The score and the so-called "vaudeville" act put on by the Athletics in the final inning—in which Philadelphia players changed positions and performed "trick" plays—caused Amoskeag to reconsider its professionalization activities. Increased on- and off-field problems with players, who were hired ostensibly to work for the textile company but in reality were employed for their baseball skills, also led the Textile Club to withdraw its support for the Manufacturers League.
After briefly turning the stadium over to the short-lived Manchester Textiles of the New England League
, Textile Field became the sole domain of the city's manufacturers and schools until 1926. Ultimately, Amoskeag's experiment failed, and in 1922 Amoskeag employees unionized and conducted a nine-month strike which paralyzed the company. The company brought in the National League's Brooklyn Robins (now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers
) to play against the Amoskeag team in 1923, apparently in an effort to soothe worker discontent, but this did not prevent the company's demise. Amoskeag closed for good in 1935.
Over the years, Gill Stadium has served as the home field for numerous high school and American Legion
ball clubs. The stadium served as host for the American Legion World Series on five occasions.
Gill Stadium has also hosted professional baseball. The Manchester Blue Sox played at Athletic Field, as it was then known, from 1926–1930, winning multiple championships. The Manchester Giants of the New England League called the stadium home in 1946 and 1947, and the Manchester Yankees played there in 1948 and part of the 1949 season before the financial collapse of the team. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, an Eastern League team, also called the Yankees, played there. Additionally, the Eastern League's Nashua Angels played a game at Gill Stadium in 1983.
Most recently, Gill Stadium was the home of the Eastern League's New Hampshire Fisher Cats
. The AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays
captured the 2004 EL title while playing its inaugural season at Gill. In 2005, the Fisher Cats moved to the new Merchantsauto.com Stadium
on the banks of the Merrimack River
near downtown Manchester.
Gill Stadium continues to serve as the home of numerous amateur teams in Manchester's thriving baseball community.
It also serves as the field for Manchester's annual Thanksgiving
football tournament, the Turkey Bowl. It pits two of the three city schools against each other each year based on the performance of the teams during the just completed season.
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
ing stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
located in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
. It is believed to be the oldest stadium constructed of concrete and steel in New England outside of the Boston area. The venue, which mainly hosts amateur baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
contests, currently has a capacity of 3,700.
Origins and early history
Built in 1913 at a cost of more than $30,000, the grandstand for what originally was known as Textile Field is one of the early concrete-and-steel stadiums in the United States outside of major cities. Only Harvard StadiumHarvard Stadium
Harvard Stadium is a horseshoe-shaped football stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Built in 1903, the stadium seats 30,323. The stadium seated up to 57,166 in the past, as permanent steel stands were installed in the north end of the stadium in 1929...
in Allston
Allston, Boston, Massachusetts
Allston is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located in the western part of the city. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part, Allston is administered collectively with the adjacent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
(1903), Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field
Rickwood FieldFacility StatisticsLocation1137 2nd Avenue WestBirmingham, AlabamaBroke GroundSpring 1910Cost$75,000OpenedAugust 18, 1910SurfaceGrassOwnerCity of BirminghamTenantsBirmingham Barons 1910-1961...
in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
(1910), and Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts (1912), are known to be older surviving examples of concrete-and-steel stadiums in the United States.
The Amoskeag Textile Club, which was funded by and whose members were employees of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was a textile manufacturer which founded Manchester, New Hampshire. From modest beginnings in near wilderness, it grew throughout the 19th century into the largest cotton textile plant in the world. At its peak, Amoskeag was unrivaled both for the quality and...
, constructed the grandstand. It was built on the site of Varick Park
Varick Park
Varick Park was an athletic complex located in Manchester, New Hampshire, from 1895 until 1913. It was constructed by local businessman Thomas Varick on land owned by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, partially on the site formerly occupied by a minor-league baseball park, the Beech Street Grounds...
, a mid-1890s wooden structure which itself occupied the site of a still earlier ballpark, the Beech Street Grounds
Beech Street Grounds
The Beech Street Grounds were a baseball-only stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire between 1892 and 1895. Constructed at the corner of Beech and Valley Streets on land owned by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, the grounds were part of a section of the city known as the Plains, a relatively flat...
. Baseball on the site can be traced to at least 1880, when the area east of the Valley Cemetery
Valley Cemetery
The Valley Cemetery is a public cemetery located in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. It is bounded on the east by Pine Street, on the north by Auburn Street, on the west by Willow Street, and on the south by Valley Street, from which it derives its name.It came into existence in 1840, when the...
was known as "the Plains."
The Textile Club appears to have constructed the grandstand as part of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company's benevolence programs. Amoskeag, which employed about 17,000 people in a city of 65,000, included among its workforce a large number of immigrants. In the minds of Amoskeag managers, the most troublesome of this group were the most recent arrivals from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. Recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were being blamed for the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
, which resulted in much violence and the involvement of the radical Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
union. Amoskeag, which was not unionized, wanted no such trouble, particularly in light of the fact that IWW operatives were seen in Manchester during the Lawrence strike. The company hoped to find a way to "Americanize" its workforce, thereby giving workers a stronger connection to the company and to the United States, and to find diversionary activities to keep them from unionizing in their free time. Baseball seemed an ideal solution.
Amoskeag, along with the McElwain Shoe Company and other industries in Manchester, organized the city Manufacturers' League in 1912. The league played at three locations in Manchester, of which Varick Park was the most important. In 1913, the company constructed Textile Field to make the league appear to be more authentically "professional." The field made its debut over Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend of that year, but the grandstand was not entirely completed until late July. The dedication game came in early September, when the World Champion Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
—playing its major-league lineup for nearly the entire game—defeated the Manufacturers' League All-Stars, 3-1. A year later, the World Champion Philadelphia Athletics defeated the All-Stars, 7-1. The score and the so-called "vaudeville" act put on by the Athletics in the final inning—in which Philadelphia players changed positions and performed "trick" plays—caused Amoskeag to reconsider its professionalization activities. Increased on- and off-field problems with players, who were hired ostensibly to work for the textile company but in reality were employed for their baseball skills, also led the Textile Club to withdraw its support for the Manufacturers League.
After briefly turning the stadium over to the short-lived Manchester Textiles of the New England League
New England League
The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played sporadically in five of the six New England states between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification...
, Textile Field became the sole domain of the city's manufacturers and schools until 1926. Ultimately, Amoskeag's experiment failed, and in 1922 Amoskeag employees unionized and conducted a nine-month strike which paralyzed the company. The company brought in the National League's Brooklyn Robins (now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
) to play against the Amoskeag team in 1923, apparently in an effort to soothe worker discontent, but this did not prevent the company's demise. Amoskeag closed for good in 1935.
After the 1922 strike
Textile Field was purchased by the City of Manchester in 1927 and, in a name-the-field contest conducted by the Manchester Union-Leader, renamed Athletic Field. The name was changed to Gill Stadium in 1967, after former Parks and Recreation Director Ignace J. Gill.Over the years, Gill Stadium has served as the home field for numerous high school and American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
ball clubs. The stadium served as host for the American Legion World Series on five occasions.
Gill Stadium has also hosted professional baseball. The Manchester Blue Sox played at Athletic Field, as it was then known, from 1926–1930, winning multiple championships. The Manchester Giants of the New England League called the stadium home in 1946 and 1947, and the Manchester Yankees played there in 1948 and part of the 1949 season before the financial collapse of the team. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, an Eastern League team, also called the Yankees, played there. Additionally, the Eastern League's Nashua Angels played a game at Gill Stadium in 1983.
Most recently, Gill Stadium was the home of the Eastern League's New Hampshire Fisher Cats
New Hampshire Fisher Cats
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are a minor league baseball team based in Manchester, New Hampshire. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays major-league club....
. The AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
captured the 2004 EL title while playing its inaugural season at Gill. In 2005, the Fisher Cats moved to the new Merchantsauto.com Stadium
Merchantsauto.com Stadium
Northeast Delta Dental Stadium is a stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire that holds 7,500 people. It is used primarily for baseball, and is the home field of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats minor league baseball team. The first game played at the ballpark was on April 7, 2005, between the New...
on the banks of the Merrimack River
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
near downtown Manchester.
Gill Stadium continues to serve as the home of numerous amateur teams in Manchester's thriving baseball community.
It also serves as the field for Manchester's annual Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
football tournament, the Turkey Bowl. It pits two of the three city schools against each other each year based on the performance of the teams during the just completed season.