Great news for the Hamtramck Stadium, the former site of the Negro League’s Detroit Stars. The National Park Services has granted an amount of $50,000 toFriends of Hamtramck Stadium, the group that wants to preserve the stadium.
Last month, you could read here about Hamtramck Stadium and its deplorable state.
The Friends of Hamtramck Stadium stated that they needed at least $50,000 to restore the ballpark to its former glory where the community can play baseball, cricket and soccer.
The lobbying of the group paid off as the National Park Sevices donated $50,000. The NPS announced a total of $7.5 Million in grants. All of these grants went to American Civil Rights Movement sites. The $50,000 is peanuts compared to other projects, but you have to start somewhere.
The Detroit Free Press cited: “The city of Hamtramck owns the stadium and said in a statement today that it will use the money “toward predevelopment work for the complete rehabilitation of the historic resource and will include a detailed conditions assessment, construction estimate, architectural plans and specifications.”
Hamtramck Stadium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The Detroit Free Press stated that the city hopes to reopen the stadium as a public facility that includes sports and community events, concerts, events, movies. It also hopes to have exhibition ballgames that explore the history of the site.
The stadium was the home of the Detroit Stars for only one two years as the team folded after the Negro National League folded in 1931. In 1932 the ballpark got a new tenant in the Detroit Wolves, the Detroit representative of the newly established Negro League the East-West League. But the East-West League folded quickly and the Wolves did too.
In 1933 a reconstructed Detroit Stars team played at Hamtramck Stadium again but that team lasted only for one season. In 1937 it would be the final time that a Negro League team would play at Hamtramck Stadium again. A newly reconstituted Detroit Stars team played in the Negro American League but the team folded shortly before the 1938 season.
Luckily the Friends of Hamtramck Stadium can start with the renovation now. It is good to know that a valuable piece of history will be preserved.
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