Breese Stevens Field is the oldest playing field in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

, located northeast of the Wisconsin State Capitol

Wisconsin State Capitol

The Wisconsin State Capitol, in Madison, Wisconsin, houses both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature along with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor. Completed during 1917, the building is the fifth to serve as the Wisconsin capitol since the first territorial legislature...

. Until the mid-1960s, this was the only city park with lights. Almost all major outdoor athletic events took place here, including all Madison high school football games. In the 1940s, the field was home to the minor league baseball team Madison Blues of the Triple-I League

Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League

The Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League was a minor league baseball organization that operated for the better part of 60 years, mostly in those three states. It was popularly known as the Three-I League and also sometimes jokingly as the Three-Eye League....

. It is believed that Warren Spahn, the great left-handed pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves, played here as a member of the Evansville Bees of the Three-I League in the early 1940s when they opposed the Madison Blues. "Breese," as it is known, has also hosted circuses, midget car racing, ice skating, track and field, Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps

Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps

The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps is a summer youth drum corps based in Madison, Wisconsin that competes in the Drum Corps International circuit. Founded in 1938, it is the third oldest corps in the DCI circuit, after the Cadets, and the Racine Scouts, founded in 1934 and 1927, respectively....

 competitions, concerts, even boxing and wrestling events. By the late 1960s, Breese Stevens Field lost its status as the city's premier athletic complex as modern facilities, such as Mansfield Stadium, began to appear in suburban Madison. It is currently home to Edgewood College and the Madison 56ers amateur soccer team. It has also hosted Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the first high school athletic organization in the country...

's girls soccer tournaments in recent years and an exhibition match of Australian Football between the Milwaukee Bombers and Minnesota Freeze.

The city purchased the land for the field in 1923 and built the brick grandstand in 1925. The original grandstand structure, designed by the Madison architectural firm of Claude and Starck

Claude and Starck

Claude and Starck was an architectural firm in Madison, Wisconsin, at the turn of the twentieth century. The firm was a partnership of Louis W. Claude and Edward F. Starck . Established in 1896, the firm dissolved in 1928...

 in the Mediterranean Revival

Mediterranean Revival Style architecture

The Mediterranean Revival was an eclectic design style that was first introduced in the United States about the end of the nineteenth century, and became popular during the 1920s and 1930s...

 style, was constructed from 1925 to 1926 and formally dedicated on May 5, 1926. The blueprints for Breese Stevens Field (grandstand) are located in the manuscript division of the Elmer Anderson library on the west bank campus of the University of Minnesota. The exterior surrounding stone wall was built in 1934 as a project of the Civil Works Administration

Civil Works Administration

The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the organization. President Franklin D...

 using quarry rock from Hoyt Park. The concrete bleachers were also built in 1934, and the wood-press box was added in 1939.

The field is named in honor of Breese J. Stevens

Breese J. Stevens

Breese J. Stevens was Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. He held the office from 1884 to 1885. Breese Stevens Field is named in his honor....

 (1834-1903), a New York native who came to Wisconsin in 1856 to look after family land interests. Stevens became mayor of Madison in 1884 and a University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

regent in 1891. This complex is a Madison Landmark and was nominated by the Madison Trust in 1995.

External links

• "A Glimpse at Breese Stevens Field" from the Newsletter of the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association