The Kings County Parade Ground (also known as the Prospect Park Parade Ground), bounded by Parade Place,
Franklin Avenue (now Parkside Avenue), Caton Avenue,
and Coney Island Avenue, was designed by Olmsted and Vaux along with adjacent Prospect Park and saw its
first parade in 1867. The 11th Brigade's Howitzer Battery was the lucky unit to be the first to march and
fire a shot. Although intended from the start as a military facility, sports moved in early, and by
1871 the Parade Ground was being described by Henry Chadwick as the "finest free ball ground in
the United States."
Over the course of the next two decades, military activity diminished and the Ground's potential as a
public sporting venue was fully realized. This was not limited to amateur sports. Charlie Byrne's new
Brooklyn Base Ball Club, its Washington Park home not yet ready, played and won its first
Inter-State League game at the Parade Ground on May 9, 1883, over Harrisburg by a score of 7 to 1.
Reports vary, since tickets were not taken, but perhaps 2,000 fans attended the first and last
professional match at the ground.
Postcards of the Parade Ground- sadly, the field
house was demolished some time ago Pictures courtesy
Prospect Park Archives
By 1885, renovations included Bowling Green Cottage, especially for sporting clubs, as the
Ground was used almost exclusively for sports. Foremost among these was baseball. The New York Times
reported that the 1885 season saw some 900 baseball games, 150 cricket matches, 150 football matches,
and 35 lacrosse games.
These early years at the Parade Ground saw such classic amateur matchups as Nameless vs Peerless,
and Resolute vs Dauntless. There were occasional accusations of "revolving" in the 1880s- where a
star player would be shared amongst several clubs to obtain an advantage. But for the most part,
competition at the Parade Ground remained on friendly terms.
Map of the modern Parade Ground by Christian Zimmerman Drawing courtesy
Prospect Park Alliance
In 1887, baseball clubs complained of the difficulty of finding space at the Parade Ground-
Central Park did not allow baseball, and clubs were flooding in from neighboring New York. In 1900,
baseball clubs found themselves having to compete for space with polo teams. At various times in
the years to come, time-starved ballclubs would request lights for night games, but were politely
declined, the reason being that the Parade Ground was at the physical limit of how much game playing
it could take.
The Sidneys won Brooklyn's amateur championship in 1895
The largest crowd recorded at the Parade Ground was on June 16, 1927. 200,000 people attended a
reception for Charles Lindbergh, celebrating his flight across the Atlantic. After a procession from the
Manhattan Bridge, Lindbergh addressed the crowd with a plea for a great airport to be built in
Brooklyn.
Sports wise, not much changed as the years wore on. Various amateur baseball leagues
formed and reformed. Various forms of little league ball came and went. In 1949, the New York
Times reported on a pick-up game at the height of summer, when the players "heckled each other with the
rich jargon of Ebbets Field bleacherites" while "some 100 spectators alternately mopped sweating brows and
sipped soda pop." Such a scene could just as easily have come from 1899 or 1999 as 1949.
The Parade Ground, through it all, remained the vital center of junior sports in Brooklyn, especially
baseball. Future stars such as Sandy Koufax, Joe Torre, Manny Ramirez, and John Franco all played ball at the
Parade Ground. Torre was MVP of the Parade Ground League at age 16.
78th Precinct junior baseball, flag football
Gradually, though, all the activity took a toll, and the Parade Ground fell into disprepair.
The main part of Prospect Park and of course Central Park saw far more Parks Department funding,
and in later years the Ground was little better than an ungraded sandlot in many places.
Then, in 1999, came the New York Mets and their Parade Ground improvement plan. While Keyspan Park was being
built, the Mets needed somewhere to put their new minor league franchise for the 2000 season. They proposed
the Parade Ground. Half the space would be turned into a parking lot, the rest into a temporary minor
league stadium. Afterwards, they promised that the stadium half would be turned back into something
useful for the amateurs and little leaguers.
The amateur Brooklyn Warriors have a familiar looking uniform
The soccer mom crowd was galvanized into action. We at BrooklynBallParks.com are proud to say we
were with a huge crowd of parents, children, and concerned citizens marching across the
Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. The chant still rings in our ears: "We like soccer a whole lot! We
don't need a parking lot!" (Andrew would, however, like it known that while he neither wanted nor
needed a parking lot, he does not like soccer at all.) Political pressure forced the Mets to abandon
the plan and place the team at St. John's University for the season.
Field 3 is the showpiece of the new Parade Ground
Subsequent publicity focused attention on the poor state of the Parade Ground. In 2000, a
$2 million allocation from the city was added to $10 million from Borough President Howard Golden,
and a complete overhaul began. The revitalized Parade Ground was opened in 2004 to universal acclaim.
The sandlot became an oasis of well maintained fields, both grass and fieldturf, and even lights
for night play. Visit to the Ground today and you'll see swarms of young kids in uniforms with
stylish 78 logos- 78th Precinct youth sports. Amateur baseball, basketball, flag football, soccer,
tennis, and softball feature prominently, too.
Many thanks to Amy Peck at the Prospect
Park Archives for her tireless help with this page.
