Boulevard Park - Helen at East Lafayette
Baseball entrepreneur G. A. Vanderbeck came from California to Detroit and secured a Western League franchise for the city. In early 1894, he hastily built a wooden park at the northwest corner of Helen and East Lafayette. Within three years, he built a larger park at Michigan and Trumbull. At present, the building occupying the space that was once Boulevard or League Park looks like a first generation auto plant.
Does any one know when that building was erected or what was produced there?
More about Helen and East Lafayette
The March 24, 1894 issue of The Sporting Life, published a substantial account of
the baseball park that G. A. Vanderbeck built for the Detroit team in the Western
League. This information strongly suggests the park was at the northwest corner
of this intersection.
If this url does not work well, send me a reply.
This Boulevard or League Park was used by the Detroit Creams or Detroit Tigers for only two years. By May of 1896, I believe they were playing their home games on the
former West Side hay market at Michigan and Trumbull.
https://mail.isr.umich.edu/exchange/...m.pdf?attach=1
Detroit Minor League Baseball 1891
Detroit had an entry in the Northwesten League for the '91 season. They opened on May 9 but the team folded on June 6. The entire league folded in July. Professional baseball was not to return to Detroit until 1894. Undoubtedly the great recession of 1892 played some role in that.
Perhaps the 1891 Detroit Wolverines played their few home games at Owens Park. That may have been located at the mainland foot of the Belle Isle bridge in the recently renovated Gabriel Richard Park. Not very much has been written about professional baseball in Detroit in the years between the loss of the National League franchise and the obtaining of an American League franchise. Sunday baseball was prohibited in Detroit until about 1910 when Frank Navin was able to convince city officials that the Blue Law should not be enforced. That explains why the early Tiger teams played some of their American League Sunday games in Springwells, River Rouge and even a few in Columbus and Grand Rapids.