Where the Indianapolis Zoo is now used to be one of the first lighted baseball parks in the nation. Called West Washington Street Park, it was also one of its biggest – it held 20,000 people.

Before that though, Indianapolis baseball roots went all the way back to 1876 when the Indianapolis Westerns played at South Street Park which is now a parking lot for Banker’s Life Field-house where the Indiana Pacers of the NBA play their basketball games. Known in 1877 as the Blues, in 1878, they were called the Indianapolis Hoosiers for one year when they played in the National Association of Professional Baseball Players (aka, the National League of today) that had formed the year before. When management ran out of money to pay their players, Indianapolis sadly stopped being a Major League baseball city for good. Having been relegated to the Minor Leagues in 1905, by the time West Washington Street Park was built, the American Association’s AAA Minor league team, the Indianapolis Indians, played before 4,000 people.

In 1909, the ball field was completely rebuilt, and the seating capacity was enlarged to 20,000, the most in the minor leagues. It also boasted the largest playing field of any minor league park, and was larger than many major league parks of its era. Aside from hosting the Indians, this venue was also home to the Indianapolis ABCs of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1926.

This baseball complex also featured some of the first lights for night baseball in all of America. In addition, two of the game’s greatest players of all time, Babe Ruth and Lou Gerhig even played an exhibition game here. On his last at bat, Babe, the Sultan of Swat, hit one so far out of the park, that Indianapolis locals talked about it for years.

In 1931, baseball moved a little over a mile and a half north, still on the river, to Bush Stadium, at 16th Street. In doing so, they brought the light standards from West Washington Park to the new stadium. There the Indianapolis Indians played from 1931 to 1996 until they came back. Only to the other side of the river.

They returned to a beautiful baseball complex called Victory Field. A few hundred yards from West Washington Park, this park is on land once occupied by the Kingan pork people. Now, it is one more attraction in White River State Park.

Other posts about Indianapolis history Martin Krieg created as he wrote "How Indianapolis Built America" are at this link HERE