The Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants until 1957, doesn’t get the adulation Ebbets Field and the old Yankee Stadium receive. This photo dates to about 1920; check out the decorative motifs on the left:
The bathtub-shaped stadium was located at Eighth Avenue and 155th Street, at the bottom of a steep hill rising from the Harlem River called Coogan’s Bluff.
Why the Polo Grounds, when no polo was played there? In the 1880s, the Giants held their games at a polo field on Fifth Aveune and 110th Streets. When they moved uptown, they took the name with them.
After the Giants shipped out to San Francisco, the Mets played there for their first seasons in 1962 and 1963.
Torn down in 1964, it’s now the site of the Polo Grounds housing project. Reportedly the demolition crew wore Giants jerseys and tipped their hats in homage to the stadium.
Tags: Coogan's Bluff, Coogan's Hollow, Ebbets Field, New York Giants, New York Mets at the Polo Grounds, Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium
Ephemeral New York 
April 5, 2009 at 3:43 am |
I love this photo. I worked at Fordham University and frequently recall older alumni reminiscing about the Fordham football games played at the Polo Grounds
April 6, 2009 at 3:32 pm |
[…] views of the vanished Polo Grounds. [Ephemeral New […]
April 6, 2009 at 4:22 pm |
Polo Grounds housing project! Uh.
June 17, 2010 at 11:46 pm |
The Titans play there before they became the football Jets. The Yankees (nee Highlanders or Hilltopers) played there after a fire at their nearby ball field up the hill where Columbia Presbyterian Hospital now stands. This was right before their new stadium was built right across the river in the Bronx..
April 7, 2011 at 4:37 am |
[…] 1921, after sharing the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan with the Giants for a decade, the two team were butting heads—especially with the Yankees selling […]
September 3, 2012 at 1:23 am |
[…] bathtub-shaped stadium known as the Polo Grounds, on Eighth Avenue and 155th Street in Harlem, met the wrecking ball in 1963 […]