Return to the main page

Though it was a primarily a professional baseball venue, various parcels of Piedmont Park were used by Georgia Tech more years than not from 1892-1904; Piedmont Park I was their first home athletic field (1892-1893) until was variously supplemented and replaced by Brisbine Park and Athletic Park. The Techs returned from 1898-1901, playing at Piedmont Park IV. After a one-year stint back at Brisbine Park, they returned to Piedmont Park IV, hosting events (except baseball in 1904, which occurred at Piedmont Park I) on those grounds through the Spring of 1904, when they moved to The Flats (1905-1907), just adjacent to Bobby Dodd Stadium.

NC State never played a game at the venue; one contest was scheduled, but was canceled after the team's student manager ran off with the only copy of the schedule as part of the Thug Movement.

  * Non-conference games

The land which became Piedmont Park was first purchased by the Gentleman's Driving Club, a nascent social club looking for a place to ride their horses. To that end, they acquired the Benjamin F. Walker Farm, just north of Atlanta's city limits, in late April 1887. Before they had even completed the purchase of the grounds, they were in talks with the Piedmont Exposition (whose members were largely one and the same as those of the driving club) to use the site for a fair that October. It was considered an ideal site for the fair for a few reasons, primary among them being the property's eastern border with the Richmond & Danville Railroad.

Work on converting the former farmland into a fairground began in late May and proceeded at a rapid rate. The old stone Walker House was converted into a clubhouse, and nearby a horse track was laid off; the 1/2-mile track's west side featured a 5,000-6,000 person grandstand located at the south end of the grounds. Other structures built include a machinery hall, an agricultural hall, and various livestock barns, as well as over 7 miles of roads. After five frenzied months of work, the whole park opened, and the fair was considered a great success. This track will be referred to as Piedmont Park I in my writing for clarity [1].

Besides equine activities, the park also proved to be a popular spot for bicycle riding. The grounds were used almost exclusively in those capacities for most of its first decade of use, though a handful of baseball and football games were pulled off, including Auburn's first-ever college football game, against Georgia. These events were held in the center of the horse track: a narrative of the aforementioned Auburn-Georgia game noted that "one side of the gridiron runs up within five feet of the grand stand" while mentioning that carriages could be parked "on the other side of the grounds inside the track." Summaries from both the 1892 Georgia Tech-Vanderbilt game and the St. Alban's game specifically note the use of the "exposition grand stand," while the latter also noted that the field ran north-to-south, which aligns with the layout of the race track [2].

Early in 1895, the venue was revamped to host another event: the Cotton States and International Exposition. This once again began the process of reworking the entire grounds; as part of the work, the old racetrack was turned into a scenic plaza and walking path, with the wood from the grandstand being incorporated into new construction work and the foundation being used for the new auditorium. Strangely, though the event brought several football games to town as a part of the exhibition, there was scarcely room on the grounds for the events; two of the football games were played at Atlanta's downtown Athletic Park, while the Auburn-Georgia game took place on the grounds prepared for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show; this venue will be called Piedmont Park II. The grounds, at the southeast corner of the property, required diverting an existing stream to be underground, with "two or three feet of dirt" placed overtop. The overall park was also enlarged by the addition of 90 acres to the north side of the grounds [3].

Following the Exposition, there was substantial uncertainty about the future of the grounds. Questions about whether or not the city would acquire the park were clouded by discussions about whether the buildings left over from the exposition would they be retained. Eventually, a private firm purchased the grounds and converted it to a recreational park, keeping many of the buildings and the racetrack with the hopes of attracting future fairs. The park itself re-opened in August as a pleasure park, and in September, the former Machinery Hall was gutted and fit up as an indoor bicycle track (Piedmont Park IIIa), sometimes called The Coliseum, at a cost of $4,000 (over $154k in 2025). The 1/6-mile banked track opened in February 1897 and closed in 1900, when it was converted an indoor auditorium for the horse show, though temporary tracks were added each winter through 1903, when races moved to the site of the former women's building (Piedmont Park IIIb) [4].

Cycling was not the only sport at Piedmont Park at this time. Stepping back to 1896, work began on a new athletic facility (Piedmont Park IV), located on the former site of the Mexican village; had NC State actually played their 1904 game, this is the site the event would have taken place. Construction was started in October, and by late November the grounds were level enough to host the Georgia Tech-McPherson football game; notably, however, the venue lacked permanent seating. It was so spartan that as late as September 1897, park officials considered building a new park on the Piedmont Park II (Buffalo Bill) grounds. Instead, thouse grounds were converted to Lincoln Park, a short-lived amusement park for the city's colored residents. Though outfitted with a quarter-mile track and baseball field, I've found no descriptions of games here after its inaugural year of action, in 1897 [5].

Instead, Piedmont Park IV was further improved in an effort to host baseball games for the University of Georgia, as well as the annual track meet for the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA). Starting in March 1898, a 1/5-mile cinder track with a 220-yard straightaway was erected, as well as a grandstand for 1,200 persons, with bleachers for another 1,200 flanking it. The field was built with a diamond facing southeast, while the football field was oriented east-to-west. Despite the $3,000 ($117k in 2025) price tag, athletes felt that "the grounds at Piedmont are very hard and dangerous to play good ball on"; to boot, the grandstand was uncomfortable, the right field fence was short enough to force a local ground rule, and the racetrack encircling the field was said to be slow [6].

The issue of the diamond's confines was resolved in 1902 in an effort to bring professional baseball back to Atlanta in the form of the Southern League's Firemen (later, the Crackers). The field was enlarged by removing the terrace and steps leading to the old Agricultural Building, the diamond was moved closer to the grandstand, and a parcel of property abutting right field was purchased. Dimensions were said to be about 333'-356' to the right field fence, 360'-390' to center field, and 271'-291' to the left field fence. Other additions included the construction of 1,500 bleachers, and turfing the field for the first time. The following season, the newer bleachers were covered and combined with the older grandstand, creating a single grandstand stretching most of the baselines seating 2,500 persons; bleacher seating pushed the capacity to 3,200. The improvements proved short-lived: the Crackers left for Ponce de Leon Park in 1906. In the interim, the stands were used by local City League teams, but torn down in November 1908 after years of neglect [7].

With that, we've covered the lifespan of all the athletic venues at Piedmont Park except one: the track, Piedmont Park I. As noted previously, the racetrack was briefly out of commission during the fair, when it was converted to a walking path. Similarly, the old grandstand had been converted into an auditorium. While the loop was revamped and saw some equine action after the grounds' conversion to a pleasure park, and a new grandstand was erected some time in 1896, the work seems to have been fairly desultory in construction. In May 1897, the Atlanta Jockey Club subscribed funds to "complete the track" and "erect a grandstand"; while the former took place from late May through late through June, the grandstand remained unbuilt, forcing spectators to use "the terrace on the west side of the parade ground" [8].

Instead of reverting back to a grandstand, the auditorium remained enclosed and was used as a theater building, hosting bands and theatrical performances. This remained the case until June 1899, when the old auditorium building burnt down overnight. The band stand on the opposite side of the track was engulfed in the flames; the Georgia building to the north of the structure was "badly scorched" but survived. Within a couple days, it was decided to put a grandstand back in the location of the old one; the new structure sat roughly 2,000-2,500 persons. Work started in early September and was completed within a month. The grandstand was viewed as particularly poor: one promoter claimed it was "not as good as many grand stands I have seen at county fairs" [9].

Once the horse track's grandstand was fit up, racing became their primary purpose -- equestrian, automotive, and human, with the first vehicular race transpiring in 1901, and track and field meets taking place by 1903. That remained the case until 1904, when Georgia Tech agreed to use the track's infield for a number of baseball games. These were not the first baseball games on the former plaza area -- there were a limited number of matches which took place as early as 1902 -- but were the most major: additional bleachers were added to augment the seating. The diamond faced southeast, with home plate and the 3rd base line running along the grandstand. As best as I can determine, the Techs' football games that Fall still took place at Piedmont Park IV, though a handful of prep football games took place inside the track. A few more high school games took place through 1907, but no more from the collegians: frustrated by the exhorbitant rental prices of Piedmont Park for both football and baseball, Georgia Tech began work on improving The Flats into what is now Bobby Dodd Stadium [10].

Improvements to both the racetrack and the infield after this are sparsely reported and difficult to follow. Starting in 1907, some papers began referencing a north and south diamond at the park; my assumption is that the former is the racetrack ball field, while the latter is the old Piedmont Park IV, though I've been unable to confirm this. In 1908 two athletic clubs met on "the new gridiron in the race track." Around this time, the city also began looking to improve the park grounds. The city acquired the grounds in 1904, but generally did very little in the way of upkeep. Though city engineer Zach Ruff was tasked in March 1907 to devise a strategy to improve the grounds, his suggestions were not acted upon.

Just before the turn of the decade, however, local figures decided they had bided their time long enough. In addition to hiring the respected Olmsted Brothers to completely revamp the greenspace, it was decided to no longer host fairs on the grounds. In February 1910, the few buildings which had not yet either burnt down or collapsed were auctioned or destroyed, and the stone fountain in the center of the race track was also torn away at this time to maximize space for athletics. At the same time, the track's surface was torn up: the loop was converted into a walking path, and the infield into several baseball fields which opened around spring 1911. The exact number varied from year to year, ranging from just one field in its initial year to as many as four in later years; later, these were converted to soccer and softball fields [11].

Piedmont Park thrives to this day as an urban green space in downtown Atlanta. While much more could be written about the continued improvements and adaptations to the park, I will end my research here, having seen through their primary lifespan each of the venues which existed at Piedmont Park in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Pictures of Piedmont Park