View source for Bank Street Grounds

{{Short description|Former baseball park located in Cincinnati}}
The '''Bank Street Grounds''' was a [[baseball]] park located in [[Cincinnati]]. The park was home to three major league baseball teams. The National League [[Cincinnati Stars]] club in [[1880 in baseball|1880]], the current [[Cincinnati Reds]] franchise from [[1882 in baseball|1882]] to [[1883 in baseball|1883]] and the [[Cincinnati Outlaw Reds]] of the [[Union Association]] in 1884. It succeeded the [[Avenue Grounds]] as the home site for professional ball in the Queen City.

== National League ==

A new [[National League (baseball)|National League]] entry, the [[Cincinnati Stars]], formed for the 1880 season, but the new franchise was short-lived. The club was expelled from the league for selling [[beer]] and renting out its ballpark on Sundays, violating its self-instituted "[[blue law]]", the club was disbanded.

== American Association ==

A new [[Cincinnati Reds|Reds]] franchise was formed as an [[American Association (19th century)|American Association]] club in [[1882 in baseball|1882]]. This club is the same Reds team that exists today. The AA had no such rules against Sunday play or beer sales. Indeed, the American Association was known informally as "the beer and [[whiskey]] league".

According to [[Lee Allen (baseball)|Lee Allen]], Cincinnati writer and eventual director of the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]], the [[Worcester Worcesters|Worcester]] club had been especially instrumental in having the Reds expelled after 1880. In his 1948 book, ''The Cincinnati Reds'', Allen took some satisfaction in pointing out that when the Reds re-formed in 1882, it was the same year that Worcester's days as a major league franchise, as well as its influence, came to an end.

The Reds won the inaugural season of the AA, and as such participated in a [[World Series]], of sorts, with the NL champions, the [[Chicago White Stockings (1870–89)|Chicago White Stockings]]. The exhibition Series was informally arranged, and ended after two games with each team having won one. Both games were staged at the Bank Street Grounds, or "Bank-Street Grounds" as the local papers stylized it.

== Union Association ==

In [[1884 in baseball|1884]], a former prominent member of the Reds front-office, a man named Justus Thorner, invested in the new [[Union Association]] club. He secured the Bank Street Grounds for his team, and the Reds had to look elsewhere. (Allen, p.&nbsp;29-30). The Reds eventually settled on a site three blocks south, an asymmetrical lot bounded by McLean, York, Findlay and Western, opening the site that would eventually become Crosley Field, the home of the Reds until partway into the 1970 season.

During the 1884 season, the ballpark was dubbed '''Union Athletic Park''' in the local newspapers.

Although the Union Association was dominated by the [[St. Louis Maroons/Indianapolis Hoosiers|St. Louis Maroons]], the Cincinnati Unions or "Outlaw Reds" had a strong club that could hold its own against the Maroons, and drew well at the gate, eroding the "real" Reds' fan base. However, the "Onion League" folded after just one season.

== Back to the National League ==
[[File:Bank Street Grounds Cincinnati 1886 Sep 14 Order of Cincinnatus.jpg|thumb|right|Newspaper ad for a play being staged at the former Bank Street ballpark]]
The Reds moved from the American Association to the National League for the 1890 season. A year later, some legal issues arose over the sale of the club to a new owner, and the rights to Cincinnati Park (as the ancestor to Crosley Field was then known) were part of that litigation. To hedge their bets, the new owners turned their attention to the Bank Street Grounds property and secured a lease on the lot.(''Cincinnati Enquirer'', March 19, 1891, p.2) Once the legal issues were settled, the Reds opted to stay at Findlay and Western.

In the fall of 1893, the Reds had decided to build a new grandstand. (''Cincinnati Enquirer'', November 3, 1893, p.2) On December 5, the ''Enquirer'' reported that the Reds had designed a new "League Park" to be built on the old Bank Street site. The ''Enquirer'' for December 19 had an architect's drawing of the new design, and reported that whether to build it at Findlay and Western or at Bank Street would be decided very soon. Ultimately the Reds again decided to stick with Findlay and Western, and Bank Street was done with professional baseball.

During the summers of 1886 through 1891, the property was used by the local chapter of the [[Society of the Cincinnati|Order of Cincinnatus]], who staged plays there.

{{clear}}

== Location ==
[[File:Reds ballpark and site of Union Assocation ballpark Cincinnati 1900.jpg|thumb|left|Bank Street vacant lot and Reds ballpark, 1900 artist's conception]]
[[File:Bank_Street_Grounds_diagram.png|thumb|right|Approximation of Bank Street Grounds layout]]
The ballpark was located northwest of the intersection of Bank Street and McLean Avenue, just three blocks north on McLean from the future site of [[Crosley Field]]. Its location has typically been described as "the foot of Bank Street." Contemporary maps which include a rough diagram of the ballpark clarify its location and orientation: Bank Street (south, third base); houses and McLean Avenue transitioning to Spring Grove Avenue (southeast, home plate); Duck Street (southwest, left and center fields); McDermott Street (northwest, center and right fields); houses and Western Avenue (northeast, first base).[https://web.archive.org/web/20080720060510/http://reds.enquirer.com/1998/stadiums/locnine.html] Once the park was abandoned, Dolph Street was run through the property to extend to Bank, paralleling Western.

Many of the streets in that part of the city have since been renamed, rerouted, or eliminated. The original location can be inferred from the remaining streets. In current terms, the site is northwest of the point where Bank Street turns from an east-west street to a north-south street (the former McLean Avenue). The ballpark site is now occupied by a parking lot for the [[Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority]] ("SORTA") and [[CSX Transportation]].

==References==
*''The Cincinnati Reds'', by [[Lee Allen (baseball)|Lee Allen]], Putnam, 1948.

== External links ==
* [http://www.projectballpark.org/history/nl/bankst.html The Bank Street Grounds at ''Project Ballpark'']
* [https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4084cm.g4084cm_g06645189103/?sp=56&st=image&r=-0.144,-0.591,1.287,2.469,270 Sanborn map, 1891, converted for Order of Cincinnatus]
* [https://www.ebay.com/itm/232278011971 1884 map showing Bank Street Grounds]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| title = Home of the<br>[[Cincinnati Stars]] 
| years = 1880
| before = None
| after = [[Cincinnati Reds]]
}}
{{succession box
| title = Home of the<br>[[Cincinnati Reds]]
| years = 1881 - 1883
| before = [[Cincinnati Stars]]
| after = [[Cincinnati Outlaw Reds]]
}}
{{end}}
{{Cincinnati Reds}}
{{Union Association}}

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[[Category:Defunct baseball venues in the United States]]
[[Category:Sports venues in Cincinnati]]
[[Category:Baseball venues in Ohio]]
[[Category:Baseball in Cincinnati]]
[[Category:Defunct sports venues in Ohio]]