Wahconah Park on List of Historical Society's Summer Walking Tours
Wahconah Park's grandstand was closed a few years ago because of structural issues. The city is pursuing a 'raze and replace' project.
The venue is the focus of one of seven walking tours organized by the non-profit in July and August.
The series kicked off on Wednesday with a tour highlighting how Irish, German, French and Italian immigrants changed Pittsfield in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The first chance to explore the rich history of Wahconah Park comes this Saturday when the city's parks manager leads an 11 a.m. tour.
"We'll start at the site, this being a very old site where baseball has been played since 1892," James McGrath said this week. "We'll talk about that. We'll talk about it in the context of baseball in Pittsfield and the importance of the sport — of course, the first reference to the word 'baseball,' we own that. That's wonderful.
"And then we'll come into the grandstand. We'll talk about the construction and the timeline of this grandstand. We'll get out onto the field. We'll let folks roam around on the field. And then we'll have some conversation around the vision for a new Wahconah Park, what that looks like and what some of the community values were that were raised as part of those conversations and what we might see at some point in the future."
What most people see today, from the outside, is a grandstand that was erected after World War II and renovated in the 1970s.
Beyond the walls is the main focus, a meticulously maintained diamond that continues to serve the community and baseball players from around the region.
On July 5, 2021, four years to the day from Saturday's tour, Wahconah Park was the site of one the great events in recent city history: a Taconic High School baseball state championship win that helped herald the return of post-pandemic high school sports. In 2023, the ballpark was the site of a New England Regional Tournament for Babe Ruth baseball. And on Friday evening, the night before Saturday's tour, Wahconah was scheduled to host an annual clash of teams in the Berkshire Adult Baseball League.
These days, fans cannot watch those games from the grandstand itself.
Instead, the city facility has temporary metal bleachers set up on the field itself — in foul territory and in front of the stands — because of structural issues with the grandstand.
Actually, it is at least the third iteration of grandstands at the ballfield, where George Burbank built a grandstand in 1892 — about 100 years after the first reference to "America's pastime" in the Shire City.
Over the years, Wahconah Park has served the city well, playing host to everything from plays like "Damn Yankees" to pugilists like Sugar Ray Robinson. It has been the site of circuses and concerts, football games and fireworks and, of course, baseball.
The park figures prominently in the Baseball in the Berkshires traveling museum project — currently on view at the Lee Premium Outlets through Sept. 1.
In addition to the hundreds of youth and high school sporting events at Wahconah Park over the years, the facility was a well-loved home of minor league baseball for decades. Pittsfield has been part of the farm system of no fewer than nine major league teams, including the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs.
In 1986, future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, arguably the best pitcher of his generation, went 4-3 with a 2.69 earned run average for the Pittsfield Cubs.
"The people that lived here back in the '50s and '60s, they talk about the history here," said Baseball in the Berkshires Director Larry Moore, who will lead Wahconah Park tours on July 23, Aug. 13 and Aug. 23. "The people down at the Outlets who have been coming up here for years and years and years say, 'Baseball at Wahconah Park, we always went there.' And they can list all the players who played there."
The city, which has owned Wahconah Park since 1919, is hoping that the 21st century sees a rebirth of the ballfield, just as it was revitalized with new infrastructure in the 19th and 20th centuries. McGrath described the current plans for the park as a "raze and replace" project that will keep the baseball field's orientation — and its famous "sun delays" with batters boxes looking directly at the setting sun — intact while preserving the asset for future generations.
"The campaign for renovations, the city's desire to renovate Wahconah Park is fixed in the history of this place," McGrath said. "I don't think there would be as much excitement and buzz around the opportunities for a new ballpark, if we didn't have the history to go along with it.
"Baseball in Pittsfield is more than just Wahconah Park. It's part of our identity. And whether we operate in a grandstand that looks like this or something else … there's something ephemeral about this site."
The Berkshire County Historical Society's summer walking tours cost $20 per person ($15 for society members) and require registration. For the full schedule of events and to register, visit the society's website.
Tags: berkshire county historical society, historic structure, Wahconah Park,
