In the 1880s in the Ridgewood area of Queens, just barely across the county line from Brooklyn,
there was a flourishing trade in picnic parks, with associated hotels and venues for amateur sports.
Such places were particularly popular on Sundays- while Brooklyn had strictly enforced blue laws,
those in Queens were a little more relaxed, and residents of Brooklyn would head across the county
line to drink, or catch a ballgame.
In 1886, Charlie Byrne decided to join the trend, and scheduled a number of Sunday matches for his
Brooklyn squad on the field at Grauer's Ridgewood Park. The ballfield was along Myrtle Avenue, with picnic grounds
covering the rest of the area stretching along what is now Seneca Avenue (there was no street then)
and Myrtle Avenue to Summerfield Street. In the first major league game at the park, Brooklyn defeated
Baltimore 11 to 1, on April 25, with 7,200 fans present.
The park also hosted semipro and amateur games featuring such teams as the Alpines, Ridgewoods,
Long Island Athletics, and Cuban Giants, for 15 cents admission, a 10 cent discount on the American
Association price.
Grauer's Ridgewood Park lasted just one season as a
major league venue, while the New York Times railed constantly against it in the editorial pages,
before the park was folded into the picnic grounds, and made unavailable for
further professional contests. In the final game there, on September 13, 3,000 people saw Brooklyn
come back from a four run deficit to defeat the Metropolitans 7 to 5.
The picnic grounds persisted, gradually being covered in dance halls and other recreational venues,
until 1906. Now the site has had many streets run through it, and consists of a mix of retail,
housing, and industrial areas.
Seneca and Myrtle now, looking along Seneca on the right side of the photo.
Imagine a time when Seneca didn't exist, and you could look past the Ridgewood Park
Hotel to see the picnic grounds and ballpark beyond. That was Grauer's Ridgewood Park.
Wallace's Ridgewood Grounds
William W. Wallace built the first incarnation of his Ridgewood Grounds (often, confusingly,
referred to as Ridgewood Park) between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues, and
Hancock and Halsey Streets, after renting the block in September 1884 for $500 per year. The park was
open for baseball in 1885. At the end of that year, looking for a more permanent arrangement, Wallace
and partners formed the Ridgewood Exhibition Company. They moved southeast a block and bought the land
bounded by Wyckoff and Irving Avenues, and
Halsey and Covert Streets for $12,000. A railroad cut through the land then, near to Wyckoff Avenue.
The smaller section along Wyckoff was used for picnic grounds, and a baseball field with grandstand
was built on the larger section.
Wallace modified his stadium often, and the exact capacity of the venue in most
years is unclear. When Byrne's Brooklyn team moved its Sunday venue to Wallace's Grounds in 1887, the reported
capacity was 3,000 in the grand stand, with free stands to seat 9,000 more. The field, intended to
host all kinds of sports, measured 700 by 400 feet. The reported capacity may have been exaggerated,
however. On April 10, in the first major league game at Wallace's
Grounds, the Brooklyns beat the Boston Blues 21 to 4 in front of 6,000 people who were barely able to
squeeze into the park.
Run out by roughs - Umpire Mitchell and the St Louis nine are chased out
of Ridgewood Park by a mob of Brooklyn hoodlums - Wallace's Grounds in 1887.
Image from the National Police Gazette.
The finest sequence for the Brooklyns at Wallace's Grounds took place on successive Sundays-
May 20 and May 27, 1888. First, Bob Caruthers pitched to the minimum 27 batters- allowing two hits
but forcing two double plays- in defeating Kansas City 9 to 0. Next, Adonis Terry pitched a no-hitter
against Louisville. Five errors were made by Brooklyn, but Terry kept the shutout and won 4 to 0.
In 1890, Byrne's club vacated the American Association and Ridgewood, and the new
Brooklyn Gladiators Association team called Wallace's Grounds home. A futile season for them
saw few victories at Ridgewood. The best was a 22-21 squeaker over Syracuse in front
of "500 shivering spectators" on April 18. In the final major league game at Wallace's Grounds, the Gladiators
also defeated Syracuse, 9 to 5, on June 8. Kennedy's men then moved to the Polo Grounds in New York.
Local teams continued to use the park for football, Gaelic football, hurling, and baseball, until
Wallace's Ridgewood Grounds fell quiet around 1897. In 1900 the Brooklyn Eagle began to speculate
on the future of the disused plot, suggesting it could be sold for $60,000. But the Ridgewood
Exhibition Company remained intact, with Wallace in charge, and by 1902 he had Ambrose Hussey's Ridgewood
nine as regular tenants, with other teams (including local Negro League squads) and sports to fill in the gaps.
Diagram of the layout of the grounds - 492 feet in right center.
When the New York Highlanders of the American League signed an agreement to play Sunday games at
Wallace's Ridgewood Grounds in 1904, a turf war was sparked with the Dodgers that dragged
in the American and National Leagues, baseball's National Commission, the New York City council, and
the Queens County police. The fight between the clubs, and between baseball and blue laws, would
carry on until New York legalized Sunday baseball in 1919. The Highlanders did end up playing some
exhibitions at Wallace's Grounds against the Ridgewoods, but no official games.
On October 15, 1905, 10,000 spectators packed Wallace's Grounds and saw a major upset. The semipro
Ridgewoods took on the World Series champion Giants and beat them 5 to 2, behind the pitching of
star twirler Ernie Lindemann. The locals were delirious.
In 1887, a brewery was built on the original site of Wallace's Grounds. This
poster shows it in 1900. The "new" Wallace's Grounds were across Halsey Street,
too far left to be seen here. But we wonder if a remnant of the original 1885
grounds might have been recycled in the structure shown in the closeup at right.
The Ridgewoods moved away to Meyerrose Park in 1907, playing only Sunday games at Wallace's
Grounds through 1911, but returned in 1912, and with financing
from Hussey, the diamond was renovated, and the grandstand made large enough for 14,000 fans.
Wallace's Grounds continued to host semipro baseball (the Ridgewoods who became the Bushwicks), Negro
League baseball (mainly the Royal Giants), high school football, Gaelic football, and boxing through September
19 of 1917, when the grand stand burnt down. Two thousand fans turned up the following Sunday, some to view the
ruins, some not knowing and still expecting a ball game.
In 1918, Wallace advertised the site for sale as industrial space, but it did not sell. He
rebuilt the stadium, but with Dexter Park having taken over in popularity, it hosted mainly lesser
baseball games, including home games of Bushwick High School, and higher level soccer matches until
it was sold off to developers in late 1927, shortly before William Wallace's death. The last game
we can find was on April 1, 1928, when Newtown High defeated Bushwick High at "Wallace Field" 7 to 2.
Wallace's Ridgewood Grounds today, still featuring available beer
Meyerrose Park
Meyerrose Park was originally built by Joseph Meyerrose, and leased by Ambrose Hussey for the
1907 season, south of the Covert Avenue elevated railway stop, where Onderdonk Avenue was planned
but did not yet exist. Hussey moved his Ridgewood
semipro team and Brooklyn outlaw Atlantic League team there immediately. In 1907, newspapers simply
referred to the field as "the grounds at the Covert Avenue 'L' station" but by 1908 the Meyerrose Park
name seems to have stuck.
Meyerrose Park circa 1911, with shallow stands
visible in the background Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Collection
at the Brooklyn Public Library
The largest crowds seen at Meyerrose Park were usually for double headers. Typically, two popular
Negro League teams such as the Royal Giants and Phildelphia Giants would play, with Ridgewood to take on the
winner. Other times, Ridgewood would play a powerful semipro team such as Hoboken. In this way, fans
of three or four teams would pay their way in. Hussey's outlaw team saw its largest crowd, over 5,000,
for a Union League double header with Washington on May 23, 1908.
Soccer matches were also played at Meyerrose Park, with the Critchley Club of Brooklyn scheduling home
games there around 1909.
Meyerrose Park today, with Onderdonk Avenue running through
While Hussey's outlaw Brooklyn franchise only lasted until June 1908, the Ridgewoods
stayed, and the park also hosted the Royal Giants for a time. Meyerrose Park was sold off for
housing lots prior to the 1912 season, and Hussey moved his Ridgewoods back to Wallace's Grounds.
The Meyerrose Park lot is now a mix of housing and commercial space.
Note: the long serving reference guide Ballparks of North America by Michael Benson
erroneously merges all three of the parks of Ridgewood into one. We presume this accounts for
similar errors in such places as the official Dodger website, and the diagram of Wallace's Grounds
shown above.
One last thing. Sunday baseball at Ridgewood was never too easy. The law may have been less
strict in Queens than in Brooklyn, but any kind of "disturbance" remained illegal. Byrne was called
before a Queens grand jury in 1889, Wallace was convicted of breaking blue laws and fined in 1895,
and Hussey was arrested as late as 1906. By 1917, however, the tide had turned, and charges were
routinely thrown out. Magistrate Miller of Jamaica said, in one ruling: It is beyond my understanding
why persons are allowed to go to a moving-picture show, pay admission, and be in a place where the
doors are kept closed and there is poor ventilation, and why they are not allowed to see a baseball
game where they will be out in the open and clear air and see good, clean sport. Sunday baseball
was finally legalized in 1919.
Many thanks to George Miller and the staff at the Long Island Division of the Queens Borough
Public Library for their patience and kind assistance with this page.
