The Baseball Field That Bed Stuy Forgot: The Capitoline Grounds

Everyone knows about the Dodgers, but even Brooklyn’s biggest baseball buffs may not have heard of this former playing field, long gone from Bed Stuy. The Capitoline Grounds was home to the Brooklyn Atlantics who played their first game there in 1856.

The grounds were built in 1864 and closed in 1872. In the winter the park was flooded to become a skating rink and during baseball season anyone who hit a homer beyond a brick building in right field received a bottle of Champagne, according to Project Ball Park.

The New York Times’ archives are speckled with reports on games played and events held at the park in the 19th century. The old site was spread over three blocks in the Bedford area, between Halsey and Putnam and Marcy and Nostrand.

In 2014 a cafe and grocery store named Capitoline Grounds opened at 1499 Fulton Street in Bed Stuy, not far from the ball park’s site.

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