Charles Ebbets Announces a New Ballpark for Brooklyn

On January 2, 1912, Brooklyn Superbas president Charles Ebbets hosted a dinner where, according to the invitation, "a very important piece of news" would be shared. Reporters from Brooklyn's four daily newspapers already suspected what was coming. Ebbets confirmed it: he had secretly purchased 4.5 acres in the Pigtown section of Flatbush, and he intended to build a modern concrete-and-steel ballpark.

Ebbets had spent years assembling the parcels, buying from over a dozen different landowners to avoid driving up prices. The site sat between Sullivan Place and Cedar Place in a working-class neighborhood. It was an ambitious choice for a franchise that had been playing at the modest Washington Park.

Construction began on March 14, 1912, and the ballpark cost approximately $750,000 to complete. Ebbets named it after himself. When Ebbets Field opened on April 5, 1913, more than 30,000 fans packed the grounds for an exhibition against the New York Yankees.

The ballpark became one of baseball's most storied venues. Its intimate dimensions, right field wall advertising, and the closeness of the stands to the playing field gave it a character distinct from the cavernous parks of the era. Over the next four decades, Ebbets Field hosted some of the sport's most significant moments, including Jackie Robinson's debut on April 15, 1947.

Ebbets himself died in 1925, twelve years after his ballpark opened. The Dodgers left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season, and Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960. But the announcement on this January evening in 1912 set in motion a ballpark that would shape Brooklyn's identity for nearly half a century.