Lambeth Field was the University of Virginia's first permanent college football field, seeing action from 1902 to partway through the 1931 football season; it replaced a semi-formal combination of the "Mad Bowl" (their main athletic field) and "Montebello Field" (predominantly a practice field). It was replaced for varsity football by Scott Stadium a few games into the 1931 season; other sports stayed through the late 1960s.
Overall, NC State had a record of 0-2-1 at this field, playing all matches as non-conference road games.
| Date | Opponent | Time | Ranking | Result | Attendance | Length | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/15/1904 | at Virginia * | 3:30 PM | - | L, 0 - 5 | 40 min. | ||
| 10/7/1905 | at Virginia * | - | L, 0 - 10 | 1,000 | 40 min. | ||
| 10/6/1906 | at Virginia * | 3:45 PM | - | T, 0 - 0 | 40 min. |
* Non-conference games
Noting the "rocky" and injury-inducing condition of their prior athletic grounds, Virginia's athletic forces began grading work on the area which would eventually become Virginia's newest athletic field in January 1901. Initially called just "New Athletic Field," the venue was primed to be among the choicest in the South, with a $10k (just over $380k in 2025) pricetag; the sky-high price delayed construction repeatedly throughout the design, with less than half of the total sum raised when the contract was let, despite fundraising efforts starting back in 1895. Much of the reason for the high price was the considerable effort was required to turn the "mountainous locality" selected into the now-iconic earthen bowl structure.
Early schematics were announced in March 1901; plans called for a 1,500 person grandstand in the northeast corner of the field, with two sets of bleachers on the west side (estimated to seat 175 and 225 a piece) and 450 on the south side abutting a field in an oblong octagonal shape. The layout was such that home plate and one goal line abutted the east grandstand, with the diamond facing due west; the football field ran east-to-west along the north grandstand. Unlike their old field, which was a 15-minute walk from university bathing facilities, the new plant would be but a 2-minute walk from the gymnasium, adjacent to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, near Carr's Hill. Early work anticipated opening ahead of the 1902 baseball season [1] [2].
Despite some wet weather down the home stretch, the multi-use 500' x 600' complex, complete with a 1/3-mile track, was mostly ready in time for the fourth home baseball game of the season, on March 27th, 1902. Though only 500 bleacher seats (located at the easternmost edge of the field) were ready, the grounds were good enough to get the Orange and Blue a 10-9 win over the visiting Lehigh team, their first college game of the season. Unfortunately for the gridiron portion of spectators, the layout of the grounds was more ideal for baseball than football: one spectator lamented that "Those on the railroad [tracks] have nearly as close a range [to the field] and pay nothing" to watch the game [3].
The layout of the field remained substantively unchanged for the next decade, with even the completion of the roughly 1,500 bleacher seats going unfinished: extant pictures of the venue from the era indicate that the bleachers erected before the Lehigh game were left largely unsupplemented. Similarly, despite loads of promises that construction on the athletic clubhouse would be soon to come, actual follow-through stalled. Besides the field being formally christened Lambeth Field (first recorded reference is in April 1903), little work of note transpired [4].
Renovations hit a new stride towards the end of the 20th century's first decade. From 1907-1909, Lefevre Field -- a smaller (500' square) plant west of Lambeth Field -- was constructed for non-varsity use "in order to relieve the congestion on Lambeth Field". It was named in 1913 for Albert Lee LeFevre, a philosophy professor and member of the faculty athletic committee, though it was also later called Lower Lambeth Field for its downhill location. That same year, work began on a separate track-specific "annex" immediately northwest of the main body of Lambeth Field [5] [6].
In 1911, plans were unveiled to fit up Lambeth Field with permanent concrete stands in the shape of an arch. Initial designs called for a short arch, spanning between the existing seats (in the empty section northeast of the field), to hold about 2,500 persons. Work started over the summer, but was not quite ready by the start of football season. The seating opened just before the 4th home gridiron game of the season, and in January 1912 the now-iconic collonade structure was built around the top of the stadium, though rainy weather pushed its completion to midway through the baseball season. The old wooden seating remained for a time (though considered to be in "unsafe condition") and was torn down in April 1912 [7] [8].
Work stalled, however, as funding issues emerged: apparently, the school's General Athletic Association (GAA) was quietly disolved when the state passed more stringent laws on corporations; though over $23,000 (over $768,000 in 2025) in funding was held in trust for the clubhouse, benefactors refused to disburse the money until the GAA was reorganized. With that money tied up and private loans stymied due to financial insolvency, major efforts became tied up in a political circus until the association was finally reinstated in the late May 1912 [8] [9].
Because only the northeastern portion of the seating had been built, the gridiron was shifted about 45 degrees clockwise, to run diagonally across the old field, before the start of the season. Construction started anew during the summer of 1912, and after working through the football season, the second of the three collonaded cement bleachers was completed on the north side of the embankment in March 1913, offering seating for roughly 5,000. The final third was built between on the eastern section of the stadium in the spring and summer of 1913, allowing a capacity of 7,500 ahead of the 1913 football season. All three practice fields were enclosed for the first time [10].
Few major improvements were made to the field after that. A scoreboard was added for the first time in 1921, and in 1928 a new one was added at the south side of the field. Temporary seats were added periodically as needed, with seating swelling to over 20,000 for particularly well-sold games. Permanent seating, however, remained limited to the concrete quarter-bowl on the northeast side of the stadium, which became particularly problematic after demand for Cavalier home games grew following a 1919 decision forbidding the football team from playing at neutral sites. Varsity football left for Scott Stadium part-way through the 1931 season [11].
After Scott Stadium was completed, documented work to Lambeth Field become slim. In 1946, athletic funds were used to repair the seating, erect a privacy fence (secrecy was desired for its coninued use as a football practice field), and construct new locker and shower rooms. And despite varsity football's departure, baseball, track, and freshman football continued to use the grounds until the late 1960s, when a mass exodus began: football practice moved to the the fields outside the newly-built University Hall basketball stadium in 1968, while track left for Lannigan Field in 1971, and baseball for UVA Baseball Field in 1972. Once major athletics left, the western half of the field was converted into Lambeth Field Residence Area, which opened in 1974. Since then, the field has seen use primarily for intramural athletics or recreation [12].
Last updated: 11/14/2025