A lot has happened since they broke ground for Fenway Park on September 25, 1911, and not just baseball.
Here are a few classic moments about the old ballfield captured by photographer Leslie Jones from the collections of the Boston Public Library.
January 5, 1934, fire breaks out in the left field stands at Fenway Park. Construction was underway at the time.
Rally for Irish independence at Fenway Park in 1919.
Mrs. Babe Ruth and Mrs. Lefty Gomez at Fenway Park in August of 1934. It was the Babe’s last year as a New York Yankee, and Boston fans treated him better than the Yankees did. After all, Ruth had been a standout Red Sox pitcher and batter from 1914-1919.
Babe Ruth, 1918
The Curse on Fenway Park
A gateman at his post, 1950. He didn’t have a whole lot to worry about. The Red Sox wouldn’t win a pennant for another 17 years. They wouldn’t win the World Series for another 54 years. Many blamed the drought on the Curse of the Bambino, which resulted from the Red Sox trading away Babe Ruth.
Boston Mayor James Michael Curley throws out first ball at Fenway Park in 1924.. Curley didn’t always get along with Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. He announced his bid for governor of Massachusetts at a banquet held by Yawkey to celebrate his new ownership of the team — a banquet Curley managed to crash.
Boston schoolchildren collected pennies, nickels and dimes in 1914 to buy three circus elephants – Molly, Waddy and Tony – for the Franklin Park Zoo. When the animals arrived in town, they were shown off at Fenway Park before heading to their new home.
Archbishop Richard Cushing at Fenway Park leading a Holy Name Candlelight Ceremony in 1947.
Johnny Pesky. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.
A foul pole in Fenway’s short right field was named the Pesky Pole after a rare home run by shortstop Johnny Pesky in 1948.
Ted Williams
Another Fenway feature: the red seat, where in 1946 Ted Williams hit a 502-foot home run that would have traveled father if the ball hadn’t hit a 56-year-old construction engineer from Albany, N.Y.
Photographer Leslie Jones with Graflex in a tarp at Fenway in September 1928.
This story last updated in 2022.
7 comments
You mean 1934 not 1834 under the picture of Mrs. Babe Ruth & other baseball player’s wife.
Boston had electric buses in the fifties. I can still hear the clickity-clack as the followers went down the overhead wires.
Boston had electric buses in the fifties. I can still hear the clickity-clack as the followers went down the overhead wires.
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Regarding your tarp/Leslie Jones photograph: In 1925, Howard Ehmke – while still a Red Sox pitcher – started a company (still an on-going concern today) that made tarpaulins for baseball fields. The Red Sox were apparently NOT the first to purchase such an item however. Regardless, Ehmke is credited as the inventor of baseball field tarps.
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