About Elysian Fields -- 2022

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Elysian Fields Timeline

Tom Gilbert has made available his brief working notes on the history of Elysian Fields; they form a timeline of notable events at EF from 1784 to 1904.  Nany of these events are discussed in Chapter 3,  "Escape From the City" (pp 81-115) of Tom's book How Baseball Happened.(David R. Godine, Boston 2020; 381 pages)

Skimming these 120-plus notes provides an overall sense of what the variety of EF

Note:  If you know of key ballplaying events that might be added, let me know. I see that Protoball now carries about 50 items on EF, and I'll see if any might be added to Tom's fine list.  I see that nearly 200 game entries at EF are recorded  from 1845 to 1864.  

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Version 1.0, 10/6/2022

Tom's Notes

General Prefatory Points:

NB: Many cities had Pleasure Gardens, common names Tivoli, Vauxhall – commonly feat. Colonnade –NOLA Tivoli bb grounds

EF an antecedent of: amusement parks, faux nature urban parks a la Central Park, baseball parks etc., country clubs

Elevated Uses: Cricket, yachting, turtle club, stag hunt, dueling, carriage driving

Lower Uses: boxing, rowing, blackface entertainment, agric exhib, drinking, smoking, picnics, magic, gang fighting, prostitution, ethnic celebrations, amusement park rides

Mixed: Horse racing, fireworks, theater, concerts, sex, target co./militia drills, outings, turtle dinners, promenading

EF Timeline Entries:

1784.1 John Stevens purchases Hoboken as confiscated Tory prop (Bayard) [Bayard 1772 brick house conv by S Van Antwerp as hotel 1829]

1804.1 Stevens lays out building lots, ef as amenity – “free from the danger of Yellow Fever, the restrictions of quarantine etc”

1804.2 Burr/Hamilton duel

1810.1 NYC panorama incl Hoboken ferry and Stevens Castle

1811.1 first steam ferry NYC to Hoboken  -- “Juliana”

1820.1 Co formed to drain/fill salt marshes

1822.1 new steam ferries (Pioneer, Fairy Queen) dep Barclay St (15 min trip)

1824.1 Footrace on “new race course” Hoboken

1826.1 Two girls drown

1827.1 Dueling Death

1829.1 Montagne Russe [Roller Coaster – first in US?] [found in UK pleas gdns 1820s]

1829.2 Hoboken has 400-500 residents.

1830.1 Race $50 canoe v row boats, Indian war dance

1830.2 Hoboken July 4^th Celeb

1830.3 Show (pres by Mr Van Antwerp) Misses Peters “infant prodigies” dancing, tight rope etc.

1831.1 EF “thrown open to public” party pol bigwigs turtle soup

1831.2 Peabody’s views of NYC incl EF

1831.3 Pleasure Railway Ad (near Hoboken House)

1831.4 acct of same “turtle grove” cleared, landscaped

1831.5 Colonnade bar open: H H Dyer prop. Music, food

1832.1 Ad Colonnade H H Dyer, landscaping food/drink

1832.2   Stevens under contr RR from ferry to EF (mile+); pub house now under mgmt. Mr Swift

1832.3  NY Mirror illustr EF by Jas Smillie from Wier pntg

1832.4 Mrs Trollope’s view of EF:

1833.1 Hoboken Hotel T Swift mgr

1833.2 Stag hunt Fox Hill Park 1000 feet west of colonnade EF site of Columbus Park (St G CC grounds)

1834.1 Beacon race course built

1834.2  acc to NYT 1893, EF now “the” one popular resort for NYers

1834.3 ferry 6.5 cents nyc to ef

1834.4 “lamentable suicide”

1835.1 “Pugilistic riot” bareknuckle match

1835.2  Music composer/pub S H Dyer suicide by hanging [rel to Dyer mgr colonnade?]

1835.3 Foot race prize from J Stevens $1000 for running 10 miles in one hr on trotting course

1836.4 ferry landing Christopher st to Hoboken (Barclay ferry hourly, C st every 4 hrs) liquor served on ferries

1838.1 Colonnade “pavilion” mgr Dyer, rowing

1838.2 plough exhibition and cattle sale EF

1838.3 Hoboken Turtle Club @ Turtle Grove

1838.4 Boar Race ad; “Dyer’s EF”

1841.1 mary rogers case

1842.1 Music concerts Mon Wed Sat – ferries to and from Barclay canal Christopher

1842.2 ex diary priggish (afraid to go to Niblo’s and theater in gen.) Sam’l Ward tourist from Bos: 8/10/42; EF: places of amusement, eg flying deer, swings etc – “great many people but…few respectable ones” live music, scots in kilts “a place not noted for morality” crowds on sun

1843.1 letter from “Willis” (Nathaniel parker) 10,000 people July 5 EF; Penobscots with baskets for sale; EF “finest public pleasure ground in the world”; jugglers and rope dancers; flying horses, great yellow gondola, oyster “crib” no “patent leather crowd” ie gents, but recommends for variety and pretty girls

1843.2 ad NY Eve Po: “a great benefit to all who, having been confined to a crowded city during the winter, require fresh air and healthful exercise”

1843.3   “The suicide bus. Has commenced for the season over at Hoboken. 2 suicides at EF, Sybils cave, ref to many prev.

1843.4 “in the woods or under the trees in the EF, those who wish for quiet can be as exclusive as they please” obl ref to sex?

1843.5 race at EF Indians “and squaw” canoe vs a “crack club race boat ‘Thos. Jefferson’” after: grand war dance etc. cf Am Mus

1843.6 German band at EF

1843.7   NY Cricket Club founded at EF (staff PSOT)

1844.1 McCarty; gymnastic & strength exhib

1844.2 perf Eissler (sic) Bros (Mr McCarty of “magnificent hotel at that place”) comic panto, Dr Sangrado, or Rire, Toujours Rire, cf famous Ravel family also “gymnastic exercises”

1844.3  AD: EF Gymnastic Exhib and panto etc Ellsler Bros. (theatrical family American), tableaux of Athenian games

1845.1 rowing races; blackface entertainment

1845.2: single wicket 1 on 1 cricket match BK Star CC

1845.3 Free exhib every pm at 3 pm: McCarty: Fakir of Angelina, Hindoo Festivities, etc. Magic show, Indian games, dancing/singing, acrobats, Burletta, “O’Connell, the celebrated tattooed dancer,” brass band. 

[ENTERTAINMENT TYPICAL OF PLEASURE GARDENS]

FIRST TEAM SPORTS:

1845.4  Oct 21, 1845: “A Great Match at Base Ball” NY bbc vs Brooklyn Club at EF “will attract large numbers…”

1845.5  October /25: See box score bb match return game at Brooklyn (and cricket matches incl H Wilson and A Barrett) Van Nostrand!

[CONNECTION TO GYMNASTICS?]

1845.6  July 15: NY Yacht Club regatta start from “anchorage off EF”

1845.7   in front of McC’s Hotel a stage back to river 20 feet wide/deep (Young Francisco aka fakir of Angelina misses Barber dancers, descr. NYYC clubhouse,

1845.8 Beacon Race Track at EF closed

1846.1: EF “considerable improvement w/in last few months”. New bldgs., new hotel nr ferry Mr T Swift, “Atlantic Hotel”, “We were happy to see the Knickerbocker Cricket Club (sic) in full operation upon these grounds. Their playing excited much attention…”   [ff. KBBC mistaken for “cricket” club!]

1846.2. “Aquatic Sport at the EF, Hoboken” list of NYYC yachts incl E A Stevens

1847.1 Temperance MTG at EF; pres, NYS Gov Wm Bouck (Dem)

1847.2 : sched. of ferry trips to EF, Canal via 19^th St 15 min canal to 19^th, 15 min 19^th st to EF

1848.1: ad emph security

1849.1   Nine 9 boats per diem Hoboken to Barclay St until 12 o clock

1849.2   “a most superb game of old-fashioned base-ball” at EF. KBBC v “amateurs” (pick up team) amateurs won 11-4.  Amateurs challenged KBBC to rematch for a chowder. A’s incl. editors of the American Statesman and Nat. Pol Gaz, scored by Dr Walters NYC coroner.       [G Wilkes played?]

       

1850.1 : May 21 Germans celeb Feast Pentecost, drilling (“socialists”), gymn, singing

1851.1:  Xian Advocate: during past yr 150 houses of 1^st class erected 200 more predicted for next yr; pop c 3k 1k more by may, incl many French and Germans – moral improvement: no longer duels prize fights, races etc. “Sabbath breaking is practiced beyond a parallel” 20k on one Sun!

1851.2  May 27 EF Riot: 10k Germans May Festival to Fox Hill (site of Columbus Park?) near EF, broken up by NY rowdies, 4-12 dead 100s wounded, NYC PD refused to help      [KBBC game broken up!]      

1851.3  May 28: Germans vs “short boys” rioters broke hotel windows, vand houses, houses of …MR Wright (Sam?) riddled with stones; short boys fight at McCarty’s: knife fight, shooting at race course, Germans pursued short boy into McCs, family barely escaped; Mr McC def self with shotgun, Mrs McC beaten, robberies german victims

1851.4   Jury in Dutch Fight: “one juror proposed closing EF”and adjacent pleasure grnds” as “injurious to the peaceable inhabitants of Hoboken…” others disagreed; Germans in Hoboken discuss forming militia

1851.5  July 31: woods surr EF transformed into “beautiful park”, marshy parts drained, opening broad and winding carriage rd mile and a half, “if ever the property shd pas from the hands of the Messrs. Stevens, it wd in our opinion, be highly important to the city of NY to secure it as a place of public resort in perp” Gypsies (“tinkers”) from UK settled nr EF

         [Central Park begins condemn eminent  domain 1853, C and V plan 57, ext to 110 st 63 ]

    [gradual pressure to acc working class activities, incl sports and perf arts]   

1851.6  Sept 23 Target Company outing Junior Vandeveer Grd (Bkln) at EF

1851.7 Hoboken Land Company (Stevens) requirements quick bldg. plus standards

1852.1  March 5 Michael McCarthy (sic) prop Pavilion EF “killed by the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece”

1852.2   July 5: Mrs McC fired black waiters of Pav, hired white (Irish) replacements, customers complained and she reversed. Irish ex waiters attacked a black waiter Chas Williams 20-1, stabbed him to death.

       [A-A vs Irish competition in waiter prof. A-A had won $16 salary vs 12$ for others]

       

1852.3   August 1 8Cricket match Star CC of West Utica vs NYC at EF “great many spectators…ladies”

1854.1  Rich cannot enjoy EF because “common”

1855.1  EF as usual were vis by a large crowd and among them some of the light-fingered gentry, who relieved a German of a valuble gold watch and another of his portmonnaie.

1855.2  Sept 7: EF “great crowds of the ‘fancy’” [gamblers?] to see bb and cricket; cc made up mostly of Englishmen; “BB is quite national; the boys learn it in school” “Hoboken is now princ given over to the sporting gentry. It was formerly a fav aft resort of nurses and children and quiet family after dinner parties, but rowdyism has made the place its own.”

1855.3   Outrage in the EF: rape charge

1857.1  Cricket ground, 157 acres, EF “provided gratuitously for NYers”

1859.1  Serious base ball accident

 [Mid to late 50s: decline in social status: dep of NYYC, Turtle Club see ff]

1860.1  Circa: Hoboken Turtle Club moves to Manhattan

1860s  [trans to sporting venue spectators, paid att]

1861: EF contains North (Mutual and Gotham) and South bb Grounds (Eagel and Empire)

1863.1: Desrc club rooms of KBBC, Goth Eagle Empire Mutual  Active

1865.1 New base ball ground on North Field EF Hoboken by Mutuals  Pres John Wildey

1865.2 St Geo CC lost grnds at Hoboken, staged exhibition at Central Park to show effect on grass

1869.1  Weird attempted drowning child

1870.1  Find of counterfeit $

 1871.1   April --  “Last season crowds of roughs used to gather there every evening and annoy the reg ballplayers so much that finally the Hoboken auth interfered and put a stop to ballplaying ex by clubs having spc perm from city” – S Field only KBBC Eag Social allowed N Field Goth Col Coll club.   Western Fld set apart for newspaper nines

1871.2  Gang fight

187­1.3 “prob last season of the once famous EF as a place of resort for our metro bbcs” march of improvement, rr trax cut thru Mut field,  part of ext Wash Street; another street cut planned next yr; lower fld (KBBC) intact but by another yr or so…  C T Perry and Son mgrs. EF for so many yrs, keep clubhouse etc .. doomed

         [departure of pros, top clubs]

          

1875.1 : 3000 spectators Hoboken BBC v Flyaway NYC at EF

1877.1    Trotting course

1878.1    body dead child found EF

1879.1   First ann fall games NJ Ath club @ EF

1879.2   Student At Stev Inst suicide at EF; NJ Yacht Club at EF (8^th ann regatta)

1880.1 : Reorg Eag BBC @ EF

1881.1   Suicide EF

1883.1  suicide + death accident?

1884.1  New ferry 14th St NYC to 14^th St Hoboken EF; death

1884.2  Reminiscence EF, loss thereof, suicide record/stats

1885.1  Shanty on 19^th St near EF used as rendezvous for “abandoned men and women”

1886.1 : Manhattan cc founded c 30 years ago played old fox hill c ground at Hoboken occupied  by old NY CC, then occ grounds of their own at EF, then to grounds leased by Stev Inst and St G club. (Hudson City) relo to Pros Park BK

1886.2   party of young men insulted wives of “several Italians,” knife fight

1886.3  : Coney Island , Central Park replacing EF et al

1887.1  acc death near EF

1887.2   Cuban Giants to play at EF!

1888.1  digging for Doubloons at EF – story that pirate buried treas there “Like days of 49” “high board fence around bb ground”

1888.2   Colored Champ’ship played at EF July

1888.3   Bway theater employees vs 14^th St theater at EF

1888.4   Suicide

1888.5 Lawn Tennis tournament at EF

1889.1  Nola T=P nostalgia for old EF

1895.1  NYT remin about forgotten EF: colonnade demolished ‘a short time ago” once known as “cannon lots”  Stevenses experiments with artillery

1901.1  base ball b played at St G cricket grnds “gold mine” terr dispute

1903.1  NYYC regains old clubhouse

1904.1  original NYYC house moved to Glen cove