West Side Grounds in Chicago

This is an adapted post from my Historic Ballparks Blog.
Here’s a great photo of the main entrance of the West Side Grounds. I’d love to see a better pic of the statues on the roof. The flags are celebrating their 1908 championship.

And here’s a look at the unique dugouts. The stands at one time stopped at the line of the dugouts, and when they extended them, they put fabric(?) triangles up to keep the fans from interacting heavily with the players.

This photo shows the bleachers that were constructed over the center field clubhouse. Note the differing rake of the grandstand. Once it reaches the roof of the building, it becomes shallower. The championship flag has just been raised on the flagpole. These three photos are from the Chicago Daily News collection at the Library of Congress website.

And finally, here’s a HUGE file of a panorama from the LOC’s panorama photo collection. It’s even larger on their website (a 128mb tiff!) That championship flag is out there waving proudly.

And for good measure, here’s a black and white (from microfilm) image of the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of West Side Grounds from 1917.