Washington Park (baseball)

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Washington Park was the name given to three Major League Baseball parks on two different sites in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, located at the intersection of Third Street and Fourth Avenue. The two sites were diagonally opposite each other, on the southeast and northwest corners. The land on which the ballparks were built was itself known as "Washington Park" and originally consisted largely of an open green space which was flooded in the wintertime as a skating rink. It featured an old building then called the Gowanus House, which stands today, albeit largely reconstructed. Known today as the Old Stone House, it was used in Revolutionary times as an impromptu headquarters by General George Washington during the Battle of Long Island, during a delaying action by 400 Maryland troops against approximately 2000 British and Hessian troops that allowed a good portion of the Continental Army to retreat to fortified positions on Brooklyn Heights. Those events inspired the park's name, as well as that of the three major league ballparks that were to be built there. Baseball first came to Washington Park in 1861, in the form of a winter baseball game played on skates. The Brooklyn Atlantics professionals took on the Charter Oak Base Ball Club, another Brooklyn-based team, before 15,000 spectators. The New York Times marveled at the skating skills of the players, insisting that the players "seemed to be quite as much at home (on the ice), and played as well on runners (skates) as when on terra firma." The Atlantics took the contest, 36–27.