Robison Field

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Robision Field
Location	Natural Bridge Avenue and Vandeventer Avenue St Louis, Missouri
Opened	1893
Closed	1920
Demolished	before 1926
Owner
Surface	Grass
Former names
New Sportsman's Park 1893–1899 (aka Union Park) League Park 1899–1911 Cardinal Field 1917–1920
Tenants
St. Louis Cardinals (NL) (1893–1920)
Seats
14,500 (1893) 15,200 (1899) 21,000 (1909)
Dimensions
Left Field: 470 ft. (1893), 380 ft. (1909) Left-Center: 520 ft. (1893), 400 ft. (1909) Center Field: 500 ft. (1893), 435 ft. (1909) Right-Center: 330 ft. (1893), 320 ft. (1909) Right Field: 290 ft. (1893) Backstop: 120 ft. (1893)

Robison Field is the best-known of several names given to a former Major League Baseball park in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League from 1893 until mid-season 1920.

The ballpark was originally called New Sportsman's Park. It was located at the corner of Natural Bridge Avenue and Vandeventer Avenue, just a few blocks to the northwest of the "Old" Sportsman's Park at Grand and Dodier, which would ultimately outlive the "New" version by several decades.

An amusement park once stood at the edge of left field, as had been the case at the "Old" park. In mid-season 1920 the Cardinals abandoned this ballpark and moved back to Sportsman's Park, which by then was owned by the American League version of the Browns.

The ballpark became simply League Park under new club owners Frank and Emmet Stanley Robison in 1899, a name it bore through 1910.

At that time the team was still called the "Browns", as they had been during their heyday in the then-major American Association. Some sources say the team acquired the nickname "Perfectos" in 1899. It was around that time that the team abandoned the brown motif and switched to Cardinal red. Thus, a new and lasting nickname was born.

The name of the ballpark was changed to Robison Field by Helene Hatheway Britton, as a memorial to her father Frank and uncle Stanley Robison, when she inherited the team and park from her uncle Stanley on his death in 1911. Brothers Frank and Stanley Robison, also owners of the Cleveland National League club in 1899, acquired the St Louis Browns before the 1899 season. They stripped Cleveland of its best players and sent them to St. Louis. If this made the St. Louis club the "Perfectos", it also unfortunately made the Cleveland club the "Wanderers", as they became known when they were forced to play most of that season (their last) on the road.

During its last 2 or 3 seasons, after the Robison family was no longer associated with the team, the park was often called simply Cardinal Field. Beaumont High School was built on the site, opening in 1926, which coincidentally was the year of the Cardinals first modern league and World Series championship.

One source: Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.