Lafayette Field was used primarily as a minor league baseball park, but also saw heavy usage as a neutral site location for football games in Norfolk. Lafayette Field was located on the east side of Church Street and was bounded by the Norfolk & Western tracks on the south and Rugby Street to the north, creating an odd triangular shape [1] [2] [3]. It was ultimately torn down late in the spring of 1913 and its materials used for the construction of League Park (III).

Overall, NC State had a record of 4-3 at this field, playing neutral site games largely against Virginia-based teams on Thanksgiving.

See also: Fields of Norfolk.

  * Non-conference games

The creation of Lafayette Field was necessitated after Norfolk lost its baseball team (the Norfolk Skippers) when the short-lived Virginia-North Carolina League collapsed. The Skippers were the third third in a series of transient teams to call League Park II (which NC State never visited -- see linked page above) home starting in 1898. While a renewal of the lease on the grounds by the local athletic association was ultimately rejected, local promoters also rightly cited a lack of interest in baseball in their sale of the land. League Park II was ultimately torn down and sold as scrap wood [4].

While they decided Norfolk could not support a semi-pro baseball team, enough interest in football remained for the promoters to replace the field immediately: a number of marquee matchups, including the annual UNC-UVA game (which had been played in Norfolk from 1900 to 1902) had moved to Richmond despite reports of interest in keeping the game by the Chesapeake Bay [5]. Lafayette Field was the city's answer. The field was built quickly: the land of the city's old fair grounds was purchased in June, and work finished in August 1902 [6] [7]. Though the grounds were perfectly suitable for baseball (early plans called for major league teams to practice Spring ball at the field, and the resurrected Norfolk Tars played there for their first two years starting in 1906), the grounds were built primarily with football in mind [8].

The playing surface was ready by mid-November, when it hosted its first game, the 1902 match-up between UNC and Georgetown (the Hoyas won 12-5). The north side of the field held a 2,178-person grandstand and two field houses, while in the center of the south side was a press stand; nearby was a scoareboard capable of indicating the score, down and distance, and possession, something of a rarity in this era. The remainder of the field was general admission, which sold up to 4,000 more tickets in the first season [9].

The following season, another 1,000 reserved seats were added, primarily to handle the throng expected for the UNC-Georgetown football game, putting the venue's total seating capacity at 3,000, plus room for several thousand more standing patrons. And following the 1905 football season, management promised to add 3,500 seats and capacity to handle a crowd of 10,000 people. Much of this rapid growth was initiated by a city competition to earn hosting rights to the popular UNC-UVA Thanksgiving game. Richmond's Broad Street Parks (both the first and the second) ultimately won out [10].

Around this time, the city also won back their baseball team: the Norfolk Tars returned. However, after less than a year, the team began flirting with moving, either to a new field or across the Bay. Ultimately, the club remained until 1908, when Norfolk Athletic Park was built [11].

This was the beginning of the end for Lafayette Field. Though it continued to host a couple football games a year, they were of a comparatively minor nature; most of the park's action began to center on regional baseball. In April 1908 the park's south stand was dismantled and auctioned off for scrap wood and replaced with a smaller section; an article ahead of the next football season noted that "The old bleachers have been removed and other changes made that greatly improve the field" [12]. The park also began to fall into disrepair; note the pictures from 1911 showing a missing section of the grandstand's roof.

Up to this point, most bleachers for the park were located along Rugby Street, to the north of the field. Two small field houses were placed behind the western endzone, by the intersection of Church and Rugby Streets. The main grandstand was originally located in the northeastern corner of the field, facing southwest. Before the 1912 baseball season, however, the field was entirely retooled using lumber from Norfolk Athletic Park, which was torn down when its land was purchased by the N&W Railroad. The new capacity was only 5-6,000, and the orientation was flipped so that the grandstand was on the northwestern corner of the park, forcing fielders to face into the sun; Buck Hooker, centerfielder and of the Lynchburg Shoemakers, complained that the revamped field was "bonehead work" and hoped that a foul ball would hit park ownership in the face for their transgressions [13].

Ahead of the 1912 NC State-Washington & Lee game, it was reported that the park was greatly enhanced: "Bleachers have been repaired from one end of the field to the other and an extra tier of seats have been built on the north side of the field." Sadly, the repairs proved unnecessary after bad weather wrecked the day, resulting in the city's lowest attendance on a Thanksgiving day game up to that time [14].

In 1913, the Lafayette Field Association began looking to improve their park, seeking a 25-year lease from the city in return for putting $15,000 (over $460,000 in 2023) of renovations to the venue. The city demurred, asking for 60 days to review; by April, Norfolk's public improvement committee instead recommended a five month, $500 lease, without improvements to the park [15]. Though I've found no formal announcement stating so, the Lafayette Field Association almost certainly balked at such a paltry offer, and sold the field. On May 14th, the grandstands were torn down and used to build League Park (III). By November 1913, the site was selected for a new municipal hospital; this can be seen on the 1920 map shown on the League Park page [16].

Photos of Lafayette Field