Hartford Ball Club Grounds was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

grounds in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. It was home to the

Hartford Dark Blues The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut. History In 1874, baseball in Hartford, CT was being played in a fever pit ...

from

1874 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs i ...

, two years in the National Association and one in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. The Hartford club remained in the League for 1877 but played its home games at

Union Grounds Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15. It was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, whose last professional tenant had gone out of business. Contemporary maps show that the ballpark was bounded by Wyllys Street to the northwest and Hendricxsen Avenue to the northeast, with trees and residences along the south sides of the field. The stands were situated along Wyllys, and the diamond was set up with home plate pointing northwest. Across Hendricxsen to the northeast was the Church of the Good Shepherd, bounded by Van Block Avenue on its northeast side. In modern times, Hendricxsen ends at Masseek Street, well to the southeast, but the driveway from Wyllys into the church parking lot approximates the old Hendricxsen. The former ballpark site is a large lawn across from the church and the parking lot. The Hartford Base Ball Grounds was marked with a memorial bronze plaque in July 2008. The effort was led by Ronald Bolin. In February 2009 the plaque was stolen. It was recovered in 2017 from a scrap yard in Massachusetts. No decision has been made on whether to place it back on the site. In June 2013, the bases were marked with commemorative granite slabs on their approximate original locations on the grounds field just in front of the Church of the Good Shepherd's Caldwell Colt Memorial. The tribute was created and financed made by The Friends of Vintage Base Ball.

Football

References

*Retrosheet
"Park Directory"
Retrieved 2006-09-04.

External links

1877 Hartford birds-eye map showing the ballpark
Ball Club Sports venues in Hartford County, Connecticut Baseball venues in Connecticut Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct sports venues in Connecticut {{Connecticut-baseball-venue-stub