Wade Stadium is 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 ...

park located near the intersection of Grand Avenue and 34th Avenue West in the

West Duluth West Duluth refers to an official neighborhood district in the west–central part of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Grand Avenue, Central Avenue, Cody Street, and Interstate Highway 35 are four of the main routes in West Duluth. Other main ...

neighborhood of

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

. The stadium was built in 1941 and holds 4,200 people. It is the home of the

Duluth Huskies The Duluth Huskies are an amateur baseball team playing in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. They have been operating in Duluth, Minnesota since 2003. The Huskies play home games at Wade Stadium in Duluth, which was ...

of the

Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college el ...

and The College of St. Scholastica baseball team who have won 19 straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season and 18 straight post-season titles. "The Wade", as it is sometimes called by fans, was also the home of the Duluth–Superior Dukes of the reincarnated Northern League from 1993 until 2002, and the home of Dukes of the original Northern League from 1941 until 1970. One of a dying breed of

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) constructed stadiums, "The Wade" is noted for its short distances (especially from home plate to center field), its high fences, and the cool, damp weather generated by nearby

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

History

During 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 ...

, the

U.S. federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...

used the WPA to fund projects to boost employment. One of these projects was the removal of the brick roadbed from Grand Avenue, which was then paved with asphalt. During the fall of 1940, road crews removed 381,000 bricks from the surface of Grand Avenue. Another WPA crew used these bricks to build Wade Stadium. The decision to build Wade Stadium originated with a 1938 study commissioned by Walter Chantigney, chairman of Duluth's Citywide All-Sports committee. The study found that the Duluth Duke's existing stadium, Athletic Park, was obsolete. According to the study: Chantigney gathered more than 7,500 signatures to place a construction bond measure on the November, 1938, ballot. After voters approved the bond measure, money was gathered over the next two years from bond sales, the state of Minnesota, and the WPA. The site selected for the new stadium was located directly across Grand Avenue from Athletic Park. A construction budget totaling $163,232 was set. But, due to cost overruns, the final cost of the stadium was $230,880. During construction, the project received several bailouts. One bailout came from Duluth's newly elected mayor, Edward H. Hatch, who purchased the materials needed to finish construction. The stadium's original name was Duluth All-Sports Municipal Stadium. It was renamed Wade Municipal Stadium in 1954 in honor of former Duluth Dukes owner Frank Wade, who died in 1953.

Tenancy

The Duluth Dukes played their first game in the new stadium on July 16, 1941. Their first opponent was their local rival, the Superior Blues. When the Blues folded in 1955, the Dukes (known as the White Sox during the 1956–59 seasons) became the Duluth–Superior Dukes. The original Dukes played in Wade Stadium from 1941 through the 1970 season. The only break came during the 1943–45 seasons when the Northern League suspended play due to World War II. The stadium was the home of three teams in the Twin Ports League, the only Class E league in the history of baseball, in 1943. When television began carrying

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games in the 1950s, minor league baseball suffered from a drop in

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revenue. Many of the smaller minor leagues around the country folded. The Northern League became one of these casualties when it was announced prior to the 1971 season that it was ceasing operations. After the original Northern League disbanded, the stadium was rarely used over the next twelve years. It was being threatened with demolition when the newly created Northern League awarded Duluth a franchise in 1993. The Stadium has had a tenant every year since. When the Dukes moved out of the Stadium in 2002, the void was filled almost immediately by the Huskies.

External links

Ballpark Digest Visit to Wade Stadium

Duluth Huskies Official Site

Duluth–Superior Dukes Tribute Site

References and notes

{{NWL ballparks Baseball venues in Minnesota Sports venues in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Duluth, Minnesota Tourist attractions in Duluth, Minnesota Works Progress Administration in Minnesota 1941 establishments in Minnesota Sports venues completed in 1941 Sports Venues in Duluth MN-WI Metro