9. Brooklyn Dodgers at Washington Park

The remaining wall from the Tip-Tops stadium

Deriving their name from Brooklynites’ reputed proficiency for “dodging” trolleys, the Brooklyn Dodgers played at three sites in South Brooklyn, before moving to Ebbets Field in Flatbush

From 1884 to 1913, Washington Park, located in Park Slope, was the site of three major league baseball parks in which the Dodgers played. The first Washington Park, which was used from 1884-1891, was between Third and Fifth Street, and contained what is now known as the Old Stone House—the location of a deadly battle during the American Revolutionary War and where the lost sport of ice baseball originated.

In 1892 the Dodgers moved to Eastern Park in Brownsville—a newly built stadium that was deemed as a good move. However, the fans regarded Eastern Park as too “eastern” for convenience, and after six seasons of subpar attendance, Charlie Ebbets, the new owner of the Dodgers, moved the team back to the second version of Washington Park. The new 18,800-seat venue hosted the Dodgers from 1898 to 1914. One of the uncommon features of the park was the perpetual stench that permeated the air due to the stadium’s proximity to the nearby factories and the Gowanus Canal, which was a block away.

After the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Ebbets Field in Flatbush in 1913, the Brooklyn Tip-Tops rebuilt the second Washington Park into a steel and concrete stadium which strongly resembled the initial version of Wrigley Field in Chicago. However, the team was short lived and the stadium was abandoned after two years of use and demolished in 1926. Con Edison acquired the site and converted it into one of their facilities and part of a wall from the Tip-Tops stadium still stands on Third Avenue, south of 1st Street.