Sunlight Park

Sunlight Park
Former names Toronto Baseball Grounds
Location Queen Street East and west Broadview Avenue
Opened 1887
Closed 1896
Surface Grass
Construction cost $7,000.00
Capacity approx 2,200
Tenants
Toronto (or Torontos?)

Sunlight Park was the first baseball park in Toronto. The all wood stadium was built in 1886 for the International League baseball team the Torontos (soon renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs).

It was initially known as the Toronto Baseball Grounds for the cost of $7,000. It stood south of Queen Street East, west of Broadview Avenue, near the Don River, and had seating for 2,200 spectators, including a 550-seat reserved section. It came to be known as Sunlight Park after the Lever Brothers Sunlight Soap Works was built behind the outfield fence. The stadium hosted the city’s first professional baseball championship in 1887. The team and league folded in 1890 and the stadium lasted until 1896 when the team's new owners abandoned the park for their new Hanlan's Point Stadium.

Today the site is a city park and street Sunlight Park Road bears witness to the past. The park is bounded by the Don Valley Parkway and the industrial buildings of the former Lever Brothers.

See also