Every lover of baseball should visit Fenway Park
But before you go, check the weather.
Look to the light at the top of the
"Old" Hancock Building in the Back Bay Section of Boston
and use this poem as your guide:
Steady Blue
Clear View
Flashing Blue
Change is Due
Steady Red
Rain Ahead
Flashing Red
Snow Instead
But if its Baseball Time at Fenway
And the Weather is to Blame
For the Signal Showing Flashing Red
That Means There Be No Game
South End Grounds - 1871 - Located on Columbus Avenue and Walpole Street at the present site of the MBTA’s Ruggles Street Station
Located across the railroad tracks from the Boston Braves’ South End Grounds, the Huntington Avenue Grounds opened on May 8, 1901 and was the home field for the Boston Pilgrims (later known as the Boston Red Sox).
Fenway Park opened on April 20, 1912 as the home field of the Boston Red Sox. The park was named by John I. Taylor, the team’s owner, after the Boston neighborhood in which it was built.
Braves Field was the home of the National League's Boston Braves. Built in 1915, it was the first stadium with over 40,000 seats and the largest of the era's concrete and steel ballparks.
Franklin Park Golf Course Boston
Did You Know?
Facts about the William Devine Golf Course at Franklin Park
The location of the sixth tee of Franklin Park, Schoolmaster’s Hill, was the home of the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1825.
The first round of golf in the United States was played at Franklin Park on December 10, 1890.
Willie Campbell, an immigrant from Scotland, left his position as golf professional at the prestigious Country Club in Brookline to become the first golf professional at Franklin Park. His goal was to provide access to the game of golf to the average city dweller. After his death in 1900, his widow, Georgina Campbell, served as golf professional, becoming the first woman golf professional in the United States.
Dr. George F. Grant, a Boston dentist, invented the golf tee at Franklin Park in 1899. His patent office petition read, “Be it known that I, George F. Grant, of Boston, have invented the golf tee.”
Francis Ouimet, who won the United States Open in 1913, learned the game of golf and sharpened his considerable skills at Franklin Park.
Boston Mayor James M. Curley closed Franklin Park Golf Course in 1916 to turn it into a victory garden as an emergency war measure. This closing of the course was a major factor in his defeat for re-election by Andrew J. Peters in 1917. Upon his election as mayor in 1921, he redeemed himself by engaging the services of the renowned golf course architect Donald Ross and a modern 18-hole golf course was opened on April 24, 1923. Mayor Curley could often be found playing golf at Franklin Park with Babe Ruth.
Tobe C. Deutschman, who leased the Franklin Park Refectory from the Park Commissioners in 1925, opened a radio station WJMC, call letters for James M. Curley, in the south-east tower of the Refectory Building. Mr. Deutschman went on to found Radio Shack.
On August 17, 1967 Mayor John F. Collins renamed the historic course, the William J. Devine Memorial Golf Course in memory of former Boston Park Commissioner William J. “Billy” Devine, one of the best athletes ever to emerge from Boston schoolboy ranks.
Under city auspices, golf great Chi-Chi Rodriguez gave a free golf clinic at the Park on August 1, 1989. Tiger Woods gave a golf clinic at the Park in the summer of 1992.
Franklin Park has been blessed with good, competent golf professionals over the years; Willie and Georgina Campbell, Eddie Callahan, Walter Phipps, Charlie Malloy and George Lyons, who weathered many a storm in the turbulent 1970s and 1980s. They all contributed to the welfare of Franklin Park which is richer in history and tradition than any other golf course in the U. S.
