Hinchliffe Stadium () is a 10,000-seat stadium located in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Great Falls Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

, surrounded by the city's national landmark historic district, the first planned industrial settlement in the nation (chartered 1792). Hinchliffe stadium is known for hosting track and field, football, baseball, entertainment events, and auto and motorcycle racing. It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to significant Negro league baseball during America's

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era. The stadium was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in March 2013 and a Paterson Historic Landmark in May 2013. In December 2014,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

passed legislation to include the stadium in the Great Falls National Landmark District.

Early days

The stadium, a large concrete oval with near-continuous seating laid out like a classical amphitheater, was inspired by a decade-long popular "stadium movement" in the 1920s, and was finally brought to fruition through the persistent efforts of its namesake Mayor John Hinchliffe, who made his fortune from

Hinchliffe Brewing Hinchliffe Brewing and Malting Company is a historic brewery in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey. History Hinchliffe Brewing was founded in 1861 by John Hinchliffe. The brewery expanded with new investors, so it was known as Shaw, Hinchlif ...

before it closed due to

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. It opened on July 8, 1932, as a combination athletic facility and a "paying investment" for the working people of industrial Paterson, New Jersey, who were by then struggling through the early years of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Many workers laid off from the mills found work under a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

-financed program to provide enhancements to the stadium in 1932–34. Hinchliffe_Stadium_November_2020

The stadium immediately played host to Negro league and "barnstorming" games. In 1933, the stadium's first complete season hosting baseball, Hinchliffe hosted the Colored Championship of the Nation, the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

equivalent of the World Series. That following year, the

New York Black Yankees The New York Black Yankees were a professional Negro league baseball team based in New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; and Rochester, New York. Beginning as the independent Harlem Stars, the team was renamed the New York Black Yankees in 1932 and ...

made the stadium their home, a tenure that lasted until 1945 and was interrupted only once, when the team booked

Triborough Stadium Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at the New York City Department of Parks a ...

Randall's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City,

in New York for the 1938 season. After World War II, the Black Yankees left Hinchliffe and took up residency at Red Wing Stadium in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. Hinchliffe was also home to the

New York Cubans The New York Cubans were a Negro league baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because Hispanics in ...

in 1935 and 1936. The baseball played at Hinchliffe Stadium was some of the best and most competitive in the game, including prodigious athletes like

Monte Irvin Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin (February 25, 1919 – January 11, 2016) was an American left fielder and right fielder in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who played with the Newark Eagles (1938–1942, 1946–1948), New York Giant ...

Josh Gibson Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. Baseball historians consider Gibson among the best power hitters and catchers in baseball history. In 1972, he became the se ...

Oscar Charleston Oscar McKinley Charleston (October 14, 1896 – October 5, 1954) was an American center fielder and manager in Negro league baseball. Over his 43-year baseball career, Charleston played or managed with more than a dozen teams, including the Home ...

, and "Cool Papa" Bell, among many others. Hall-of-Famer

Larry Doby Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black pl ...

, the legendary player who broke the American League color barrier in 1947, grew up in Paterson playing football and baseball in Hinchliffe Stadium for Paterson's Eastside High School, and was scouted from Hinchliffe for the

Newark Eagles The Newark Eagles were a professional Negro league baseball team which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948. They were owned by Abe and Effa Manley. History Formation The Newark Eagles were formed in 1936 when the Newark Do ...

in 1942. Hinchliffe became an important venue for

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

(Diamond Gloves, precursor to the Golden Gloves),

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

(precursor to

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

featuring stock car racing, pre-Indianapolis racing, and

midget car racing Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on mos ...

events), and professional football. Racers that appeared at Hinchliffe included

Dutch Schaefer Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, commonly known simply as Dutch, is a fictional character in the ''Predator'' and ''Alien vs. Predator'' franchises, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film ''Predator'' (1987) and the video game '' Predator: Hunti ...

Ted Horn Ted Horn (February 27, 1909 – October 10, 1948), born Eylard Theodore Von Horn, was an American racecar driver. He won the AAA National Championship in 1946, 1947 and 1948 and collected 24 wins, 12 second-place finishes and 13 third-place ...

Bill Schindler Bill Schindler (March 6, 1909 – September 20, 1952) was an American racecar driver. He began racing in 1931 in a sprint car. He was racing midget cars on the East Coast of the United States at their introduction in 1934.

Art Cross Art Cross (January 24, 1918 – April 15, 2005) was an American racecar driver. He was the first recipient of the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Award in 1952. Racing career Cross began racing midget cars in 1938. He received a Purple He ...

, and Tex Keene.

Victory Bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

rallies held at the stadium during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

drew sports stars and New York and Hollywood celebrities by the dozens. Among the many notable events headlined at Hinchliffe were shows performed by

Abbott and Costello Abbott may refer to: People *Abbott (surname) *Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist * Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act Places Argentina * Abbott, Buenos Aires United States * Abbott, Arkansas ...

. (Lou Costello was born and raised in Paterson's Eastside section.) Throughout its history, though, Hinchliffe Stadium's primary use was as a venue for Paterson high school sports. Its two high schools, Eastside High School and Central High School, shared the stadium for various sports including football and baseball until the late 1960s. ( Kennedy High School, opened in 1965, also used Hinchliffe.) The schools' annual intercity

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

matchup was always held at Hinchliffe, and the venue would also play host to other schools' teams who took advantage of its large capacity; for instance, Paterson's neighbor

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

used the stadium for its football team during the 1940s until opening its own Stadium October 14, 1950.

Later days

At first Hinchliffe, sometimes called "City Stadium", was municipally owned. In 1963, as the

schools A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

assumed full ownership, they undertook an array of repairs and upgrades that included repositioning the baseball diamond and adding fill to the area above and along the river (the "cliff" area, called "The Valley of the Rocks") in order to enlarge the football field and lengthen the track. In the following decades, the stadium did yeoman service for both school sports and major public events, including—from the 1970s on—concerts, antique car shows, and the fireworks displays for the Great Falls Festivals that have become a favorite feature of Paterson's

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

celebrations.

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

held one of his last major concerts here in 1971. In 1983, the field received another upgrade under Mayor Frank X. Graves, Jr. These repairs made previously temporary stands permanent, added handicap access and storage facilities, and resulted in the installation of an

Astroturf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

field surface. In 1988 Hinchliffe Stadium became the home of the

New Jersey Eagles The New Jersey Eagles were an American soccer team founded in 1987 as the Cosmopolitan Eagles. In 1988, they entered the third American Soccer League as the New Jersey Eagles. They folded following the 1990 American Professional Soccer League s ...

of the American Soccer League, and the Eagles called the stadium home for two seasons before moving to another venue for their third and final season. The general decline of the school system in Paterson over the next decade meant the diversion of maintenance resources away from the stadium. Although the facility continued to be used through the 1990s, Hincliffe Stadium fell into further and further disrepair due to underfunding and was eventually closed at the end of the 1996–97 school year and threatened with demolition. This forced Eastside High School and Kennedy High School to play their entire 1997 football seasons on the road and both schools returned to playing in Paterson for the 1998 season at Bauerle Field, located near Eastside High School. The threat of demolition sparked a new movement to find ways and means of restoring and revitalizing this historic venue. A group of local citizens formed the non-profit Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium, announcing in September 2002, on the 70th anniversary of the stadium's dedication. A month later, Schools Superintendent Edwin Duroy announced a proposal to revitalize the facility into a stadium complex. The National Register of Historic Places designation by the State Office of Historic Preservation deemed Hinchliffe as only "locally significant", even though segregation and the Negro leagues were of national prominence. This cost the stadium much-needed funding from the

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust fo ...

grant funding program.

Current efforts

Hinchliffe Stadium is currently undergoing revitalization, with an anticipated reopening in 2023. Former Mayor Jose Torres's non-binding bond resolution for restoring the stadium received round public endorsement on the local ballot in 2005, and the schools showed interest in mounting a funding drive to not only bring the stadium back to its former glory but revitalize it as both a multiplex sports facility (basketball, swimming, ice hockey) and a Sports Business Academy for the school district. There has been some discussion about making it an enhancement to New Jersey's planned "urban park" for the Great Falls through extension of landmark protection to the stadium, a project that would incorporate into a single thematic cultural landscape the cluster of three historic sites: Paterson's Great Falls, the National Landmark Industrial District, and Hinchliffe Stadium.Hinchliffe Stadium National Register Application, 2003, with additions by the supervising editor of that application and The Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium. On May 19, 2010, the stadium was designated one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2010 by the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

. The voters of Paterson approved a ballot initiative to renovate the crumbling stadium in November 2009. The Hinchliffe renovations are part of a large-scale project which will also see renovations to Bauerle Field, the current home of Paterson's public high school football and track teams, and the Paterson Armory; the majority of the money, nearly $13 million, will go to restoring Hinchliffe Stadium. The former mayor of Paterson,

Joey Torres Jose "Joey" Torres (born 1958) is an American politician who served as Mayor of Paterson, the third-largest city in New Jersey. Torres served two terms as mayor between 2002 and 2010 and had previously served five terms as a city council memb ...

, had committed to seeing the restoration of the stadium by the end of his term in 2018, but left office in 2017 and accepted a plea deal in response to charges of corruption. Further improvements to the stadium continue with the efforts to upgrade the area around the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. In March 2018, a $500,000 grant from the federal African American Civil Rights grant program of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

and the federal African American Civil Rights grant program was provided to renovate the facility's exterior facade. In April 2019, Mayor

Andre Sayegh Andre Sayegh (born 1974) is an American politician who has served since 2018 as the Mayor of Paterson, the third-most populous city in New Jersey. Prior to being elected as Mayor, Sayegh served on the Paterson City Council from 2008 until 2018 ...

proposed $18.7 million in repairs to reopen Hinchfliffe Stadium as a facility for baseball, soccer, football, and track. In 2021 ground was broken on a $94 million project to renovate the stadium. It has been confirmed starting in the 2023 season that the

New Jersey Jackals The New Jersey Jackals are an American professional baseball team based in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The team was founded in 1998 by Floyd Hall and is owned by Al Dorso, a businessman who also owns the Sussex County Miners, ...

will be playing at the stadium after moving from

Yogi Berra Stadium Yogi Berra Stadium is a baseball stadium in Little Falls, New Jersey, on the campus of Montclair State University. The stadium is home to the Montclair State Red Hawks baseball team, which competes in NCAA Division III; and the Yogi Berra Museum ...

References

External links

Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium

Hinchliffe Stadium
Documentary produced b
The City Concealed
*
Hinchliffe Stadium 2018
Images and history {{NewYorksportsvenues Sports venues in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Paterson, New Jersey Sports venues on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey Negro league baseball venues Sports venues completed in 1932 Soccer venues in New Jersey Defunct soccer venues in the United States Motorsport venues in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Passaic County, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Passaic County, New Jersey Sports in Paterson, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Passaic County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places African-American history of New Jersey Negro league baseball venues still standing 1932 establishments in New Jersey Baseball venues in New Jersey High school baseball venues in the United States High school football venues in the United States American football venues in New Jersey

Early days

Later days

Current efforts

See also

References

Further reading

External links