Recreation Park (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Baseball park in Michigan, US Recreation Park was a baseball park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was also used for other spectacles, such as travelling shows. Construction It was built hastily within five weeks during the spring of 1894 in advance of the first Western League season under league president Ban Johnson at a cost of $1,500 and originally seated about 1,600. The funds for the grandstands were provided by the citizens of Grand Rapids. The grandstands were located about 400 feet from Division Avenue facing east. The park was bound by the present-day CSX railroad tracks, Jefferson Avenue, Division Avenue, and Cottage Grove Street. Today the area is a bowl-shaped greenspace fenced in completely, situated behind the northbound Cottage Grove substation of The Rapid Silver Line rapid transit Line on Division Avenue. Baseball The baseball grounds was home to two Western League franchises inside of a five-year period, 1894-1899. As such, Recreation Park is a bygone cradle of the American League, and hosted franchises which would eventually find their ways to two modern-day American League cities: Boston and, more directly, Cleveland. The first franchise started play in 1894 under