In honor of this, the 60th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson integrated baseball at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, I present this information found at a website called Ebbets Field: Preserving Brooklyn’s Lost Shrine. There’s also information at Ballparks of Baseball.

WHERE IS EBBETS FIELD?

In the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the official address was 55 Sullivan Place which is located on the corner of Sullivan Place & McKeever Place. This was better known as the famous rotunda entrance. The first base/right field line was located along Sullivan Place. The third base/left field line was located on McKeever Place. Beyond left field is Montgomery Street. Beyond right field/scoreboard is Bedford Avenue. McKeever Place was named in honor of the “Old Judge” Steve McKeever. After McKeever’s death, (March 7, 1938) a ceremony was held at Ebbets Field at which the street, formerly known as Cedar Place, became McKeever Place. What largely gets ignored among historians is that prior to the construction of Ebbets Field another street existed on the site located between Cedar (McKeever) Place and Bedford Avenue. Pine Street, prior to 1913, was indeed on the map. After construction of the ballpark the street was abolished.

Who is Ebbets Field named after?

Charles Hercules Ebbets is the man which bares the ballpark’s name. Ebbets had been with the baseball club since the birth of the Dodgers in 1883. He worked his way up to Dodger President and majority stockholder, when he decided it was time to construct a new ballpark. He began secretly purchasing parcels of land in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn known as Pigtown. Ebbets eventually acquired all the deeds and on January 2, 1912, the announcement was made that a new steel and concrete ballpark would be constructed on the site. On March 4, 1912 the groundbreaking ceremony took place and it was here that the question was posed to Ebbets, “What is the name of the new ballpark?” Ebbets, after giving some thought replied, “Washington Park”, the name of the Dodgers old ballpark. New York Times reporter/friend Len Wooster suggested Ebbets Field, reasoning with Ebbets, “It was your idea and nobody else’s, and you’ve put yourself in hock to build it. It’s going to be your monument, whether you like to think about it that way or not”. Ebbets replied, “All right, that’s what we’ll call it, Ebbets Field.”