Broad Street Park (I) was used by the Richmond Spiders from 1897-1912; it replaced Mayo Island Park and West-End Park as home venues, and was replaced by Broad Street Park (II).

Overall, NC State had a record of 1-1 at this field, losing the one neutral-site game played here while winning their road match against Richmond.

  * Non-conference games

Like the Richmond Spiders, the River City's local baseball teams also made Mayo Island Park and West-End Park their home fields, playing primarily at West-End Park in 1896-1897. In November of that year, however, rumblings began to emerge that the Bluebirds, their semi-pro team, were considering moving. Their reason for looking for new nesting grounds was because it was expected that their rent to use the park would go up. As such, one of the inducements for the construction of Broad Street Park was that no rent would be charged to use the venue [1]. By early January 1897, work began on the park, located "on the site of Wood's flower garden, on Broad Street, just west of Lombardy Street." The local street car company, the Richmond Traction Company, agreed to help construct the grounds [2].

Broad Street Park held its first game on March 27th, 1897, playing host to a baseball match between the Richmond Spiders and McCabe's University School, a preparatory school for boys which opened in Petersburg in 1865 and moved to Richmond 30 years later. The "nip and tuck" game, which Richmond won 3 to nothing only after a two-run ninth inning, was played in the park despite the fact that the grounds weren't actually complete: "the benches haven't been placed in the grandstand, and the diamond has not yet been laid out." Nonetheless, a "good game" was played before about 200 spectators, who stood or sat in the bleacherless grandstands [4].

The following day, a report ran announcing that Broad Street Park would be ready by the Atlantic League's opening day, just over a week after the Spiders' first game. The park, which was expected to seat 6,000, had plans of adding additional seating in the form of private boxes (placed beaneath the grandstand) and two or three additional boxes atop the stands for the press and scorers; these appear to have never come to fruition [6]. By the first of April, the bleachers were constructed and the entire field covered in new soil [7].

Modifications to the field for most of the first decade seem to have been modest in nature. Before the 1905 football season, the capacity of the field was greatly increased. Though early reports said the field could handle 6,000 fans, a crowd of half that size for the 1904 Virginia-North Carolina game at Broad Street Park overwhelmed the venue. For what it's worth, a retrospective brief 50 years later noted the park opened with just 1,500 seats, which seems much closer to the right number, if only that of the grandstands [16]. Brand-new bleachers were added to the north and west sides of the field, while the east bleachers were doubled in size. Post-game articles from the 1905 North Carolina-Virginia Tech game report between 4,000 and 4,500, and pictures from the game show a full house [12].

In 1908 the grandstands and bleachers were enlarged "considerably," though a total was not noted; based on a high-capacity game later that season, the capacity seems to have been improved to roughly the 5-6,000 seats originally intended [13] [14]. On the other hand, perhaps the park's attendance was greater in baseball configuration, as the 1908 Colts/Lawmakers drew an average crowd of 5,300 with highs of 15,000, aided by a league clause which guaranteed the team weekend home games [24].

In late 1911, news started percolating that the park's time on this block of Broad Street may not be much longer: the freight yards whose land abutted the park (and from which the park owners rented -- see the right edge of the Sanborn Fire Map below) were planning to expand, and with the ball park's lease expiring on November 1st, 1912, it was a foregone conclusion. Forunately for the Richmond cranks, the railroads agreed to help purchase a new plot of land and relocate the park, with the likely location being another plot along Broad Street, with easy access from the city's trolleys [17].

The uncertain status of the grounds had prevented Richmond from investing heavily in their upkeep and maintenance: a portion of the bleachers had been condemned just prior to the announcement of the move, and the grounds were heavily derided in local papers; one writeup on the opening of the new Lee Park derided Broad Street Park's "obvious state of disrepair," further calling the venue "obselete" and the clubhouse "a joke." The eventual move was widely agreed to be a good and necessary action.

Not everything, however, was harmonious, with the three individuals forming the ballpark's ownership group disagreeing over some matter about the movement -- despite the fact that club manager W. B. Bradley had been in negotiations for a new tract of land since early December 1911 [18] [19]. Bradley wanted to move the Colts to Lee Park, which had been built and abandoned in 1912 for the Richmond Rebels of the United States League, to replace the deteriorating Broad Street Park, however, a contract dispute over the final $600 (over $18,000 today) in construction costs between Lee Park owners and the contractor prevented its sale [20].

Whatever the cause of the delay, they were not settled by September 1912, despite the fact that work on expanding the railroad required the movement of the north fence from its usual place, along the outfield, to "the intersection of the house in left field" -- this left enough space for football games, but obviously was prohibitive to the playing of a baseball game. Work on the new park was promised to start on December 1st [21]. In one final moment of glory, Broad Street Park hosted its final UNC-Virginia Thanksgiving Day football game, a snowy blowout between Virginia and North Carolina. Despite a reported 3" of snow on the ground and significant delays waiting for the field to dry, a crowd of between 8,000 and 10,000 crammed into the decrepit stadium to watch the game [22] [23]. Demolition work began on December 3rd. In the intervening months, Broad Street Park was slowly razed.

Photos of Broad Street Park (I)