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AKA: San Francisco Seals Baseball Stadium, Potrero Hill, San Francisco, CA; Mission Reds Stadium, Potrero Hill, San Francisco, CA
Structure Type: built works - recreation areas and structures - stadiums
Designers: Barrett and Hilp, Contractors (firm); J. Frank Barrett (building contractor); Henry L. Capot (contractor); Harold Hilp Sr. (building contractor)
Dates: constructed 1930-1931, demolished 1959
Seals Stadium opened 04/07/1931, at the start of the Depression, as the home of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) San Francisco Seals, the AAA farm team of the Boston Red Sox from 1931-1957 and as the home field of the Mission Reds (later called the San Francisco Missions), who played here between 1931-1938. The peripatetic Mission Reds moved to Los Angeles, CA, in 1938 to become the Hollywood Stars. In 1958-1959, the National League San Francisco Giants, played here, before the construction of Candlestick Park; the last game played in this ballpark occurred 09/20/1959.
Seals Stadium had the unusual distinction of having three dressing rooms: one for the San Francisco Seals, one for the Mission Reds (popularly known as "the Missions"), and the last for the visiting ball club. The broadcasting booth made early use of double-pane construction, in which the outer plate is made from blue-green, heat-absorbing glass; the stadium was located across from a bakery producing Wonder Bread. Over the years, almost 7,000 seats were added to Seals Stadium: 16,000 (1931), 18,500 (1946), 22,900 (1958). During some of its Pacific Coast League seasons, a trained seal was kept in an aquatic tank underneath the stadium's grandstand. The glass-wall construction of the stadium's radio booth was unusual. A letter to the editor by Henry L. Capot of Barrett and Hilp Contractors, San Francisco, CA, indicated that: "Your article on the General Motors Center [Forum, July '49] was extremely interesting, but I must take exception to your statement, 'for the first time on record, the outer sheet is to be of heat-absorbing, blue-green glass.' I designed a built the Radio Broadcasting Booth at Seals Baseball Stadium in San Francisco where I used seven panes of double plate glass, the outer layer of which was heat-absorbing, blue-green glass." (See Henry L. Capot, "Letters: For the first time," Architectural Record, 91:3, 09/1949, p. 36.)
Demolished in 11/1959. Some seats and light stanchions were salvaged for re-use in Cheney Stadium, Tacoma, WA, which itself was remodeled in 2010-2011.
PCAD id: 640
