Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC
The neighboring Washington Park has also had a few passing mentions, but I didn't find any pictures. The Chutes Theater and waterslide are clearly visible in the background of the second picture below.
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Thanks for the ballpark photos,
HossC! I've always been confused about Chutes Park vs. Washington Park. I’m still confused, but not as much.
Looking back now at contemporary news articles, it seems as though there was Chutes Park (1901-10), Washington Park I (1911-20; built on basically
the same spot), and Washington Park II (in use 1921-25; built a little to the southeast, at least partially constructed of stands moved from Washington Park I).
January 15, 1911,
Los Angeles Times (partial article):
ProQuest via LAPL
This sounds like almost an entirely new structure, if indeed not completely new, although it's possible some of the bleachers may have been left standing:
March 2, 1911,
Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
The next mention I found of new ballpark construction was 1921; it sounds like the stands were physically moved to the new site ("UP BY ROOTS"):
February 2, 1921,
Los Angeles Times@ ProQuest via LAPL
The new ballpark was built because Hill Street was being extended south from Washington:
December 19, 1920,
Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
The top photo above ("Los Angeles's Historic Ballparks") has to be Chutes Park. USC has a copy of the same photo:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/23777/rec/9
There's a short, detached bleacher section down the left field line, and a longer, detached bleacher section down the right field line, as in the 1907 Sanborn Map below.
The covered area of the grandstand in the photo matches the 1907 Sanborn Map.
Here’s a slightly larger version of the second photo (from behind home plate):
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a29679/
My guess is the second photo is Washington Park I. It doesn’t look like Chutes Park (compare with USC photo; different roof, different stands), but it couldn’t be Washington Park II,
because the Chutes Theater and ride are visible beyond right field. Also, the second photo is dated 1911, which was when Washington Park I was built.
1907 Sanborn Map, Chutes Park:
ProQuest via LAPL
1922 Sanborn Map, Washington Park (II):
ProQuest via LAPL
Washington Park (II), 1924, with Hill Street along 1st Base (seen here before I think). This photo shows a bleacher section beyond the right field wall not
shown in the 1911 photo of Washington Park I (in
HossC's post at top and also linked above), so that might be new (1921) construction:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081852.jpg
As pointed out here
http://silentlocations.wordpress.com...-keatons-cops/ you can briefly see Washington Park I in Buster Keaton's
Neighbors, released in December 1920. In the
screen cap below, we see what is likely the "middle or main part of the grandstand" referred to in the last paragraph of the main section of the Feb 2 1921 article above, which looks
a lot like the same area of the park in the 1924 photo:
YouTube