Adelaide Avenue Grounds

Adelaide Avenue Grounds

AKA: Providence Base Ball Grounds; Adelaide Park

Location: Adelaide Avenue, Broad Street, Hamilton Street, Sackett Street and Elwood Avenue.

The Adelaide Avenue Grounds was first built in 1875 and was Rhode Island's first enclosed baseball grounds. Located in Providence, RI, the grounds were the home to the semi-pro team the "Rhode Islands". Like many ballparks of its day, the Adelaide Grounds had an unusual quirk: located in right field was a giant Oak tree. On hot days players were known to sit under its shade until a ball was hit in their direction. The Grounds were used as a neutral site by two professional teams the year it opened: First by the Hartford Dark Blues in a 3-2 loss to the New Haven Elm Citys on June 12th and then by the Boston Red Stockings in a 11-0 win over the Brooklyn Atlantics 10 days later.

Sources

• Peter Filichia: Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebrations of All 273 Major League and Negro League Ballparks Past and Present, Addison Wesley Publishing Company (March 1993)
• Rick Harris: Brown University Baseball: A Legacy of the Game, History Press, 2012
• Troy Soos: Before the Curse: The Glory Days of New England Baseball, 1858-1918, rev. ed. McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2006