 Home plate entrance to Hamtramck Stadium, Aug-2015. |
 The grandstand, as seen from atop the pitcher’s mound. |
 A view from behind the plate, including some of the condition of the grandstand. |
|
Home plate entrance to Hamtramck Stadium, Aug-2015. |
The grandstand, as seen from atop the pitcher’s mound. |
A view from behind the plate, including some of the condition of the grandstand. |
The park endured. It was taken over by the city in 1940 and renovated by the WPA in 1941 to also include other recreational areas. Outbuildings for locker rooms were added in 1955. The field continued to be used for high school and other amateur games, and one last renovation occurred in 1976. During these renovations, the seating capacity was reduced, as the bleacher wings down the baselines were eliminated. However, the superstructure of the main grandstand is apparently original to 1930.
By the mid-1990s, the high school tenants of the park had closed, and the field fell into disuse. As of my 2015 visit, the grandstand was fenced off and the wood left to rot, although there are holes in the fence through which the grandstand was still accessible.
The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, one of only a handful of stadiums still standing that hosted Negro League baseball. Of those, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., is still used regularly. Others, such as Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., also fell into disrepair, although Hinchliffe is also being restored and will see professional baseball again in 2023.
A major renovation of Hamtramck Stadium began in 2021, in order to restore the facility to its former glory. Some of the workers on the project had previously affiliated with the “Navin Field Grounds Crew” that kept the old Detroit Tigers ballpark in Corktown usable until it was taken over by the city Police Athletic League for a youth sports facility. The field was rededicated to the youth of Hamtramck in June 2022.