Wolfson Park

Entrance to Wolfson Park, Aug-2001.

The top-mounted press box also included sky boxes for sale to paying customers.

From behind the plate, the grass running paths are clearly visible.

Chronological Tour: Stop 215

• Location: Sports Complex, Duval and Franklin streets, Jacksonville, Fla. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1955 as Jacksonville Baseball Park
• Additional names: Samuel W. Wolfson Baseball Park (1965)
• Closed: 2002
• Demolished: 2002
• Home team: Jacksonville Braves (1955-60), Jets (1961), Suns (1962-67, 1970-2002), Mets (1968), South Atlantic/Southern League
• Capacity: 8,200

Rating: 3 baseballs

The Jacksonville Suns played here for years after moving from Durkee Park, different versions of the club in different leagues. The park featured a spacious lower concourse leading to a seating bowl with blue box seats below the walkway, two or three rows of blue reserved seats above it, and then red seats and benches that were general admission. The whole grandstand, including the lower boxes, was covered by a roof.

What was truly unique about this facility was the infield. Everything except the batting circle, the pitcher’s mound, and sliding boxes at the bases was grass – grass that drained exceptionally well during the gully washers they often get here (and almost did the night I was in attendance).

However, the park was torn down after the 2002 season and replaced by a new facility to the west, in order to create more parking for ALLTEL Stadium, the adjacent home of the Jacksonville Jaguars football team on the site of the old Gator Bowl Stadium.