How much of Wrigley Field’s original 1914 structure remains today?

By: Alex Patt

Wrigley Field, established 1914. Known as the second-oldest park in the majors and the oldest in the National League. It has been in the lives of every living Cubs fan at this point, considering the Cubs have played at Wrigley for over 100 years now.

But, there is an interesting question to ask…how much of Wrigley Field today is part of the original 1914 building? The short answer to that question is honestly not much.

Wrigley has gone through so many chances since 1914 and much has been added on and replaced over the years. And looking at what is actually left of what was built in 1914, is mainly the skeletal structure of the lower grandstand and visitor’s clubhouse. In fact most of the stadium is not even in the same spot as it was when it was built in 1914! To further explore what is original and what isn’t here is a brief renovation history of Wrigley Field.

When first constructed by Charlie Weeghman and Zachary Taylor Davis in 1914, the stadium was a 14,000 seat single grandstand. No marquee, no ivy covered walls, no upper deck, not the same massive scoreboard in center field we know today and no Cubs! It was built for the brand new Federal League team in Chicago which only lasted two years.

The corner of Sheffield and Addison in 1914. Note the visitors clubhouse visible with the windows.

A graphic by the Chicago Tribune outlying the original layout of Wrigley in 1914. Note the seminary buildings and road they built the stadium around.

So the Federal League was out and the Cubs were in Wrigley (then called Weeghman Park) in 1916. When William Wrigley got majority control over the team soon after, he planned expansion. Very big expansion. 1922–1923 would see the first major renovation at Wrigley as the stadium was sliced into three pieces and actually moved apart! The right field section stayed put, but the home plate and left field sections were pulled back outwards toward Clark street. The gaps that then existed between those three sections were filled with more seats. So if you stand and look at the steel structure from the outside, not there are two sections of it that were build in 1923.

Wrigley pulled apart in three pieces before additional seats were filled in.

Chicago Tribune diagram of what was done in 1922–1923. It shows which areas of the lower grandstand were filled in and the box seats built in front of the original grandstand.

So the original diamond and majority of the stadium are now in different spots than they were in 1914. Pretty big change. The original home plate was near the current pitchers mound and the reason the stadium has an odd shape is because of that expansion.

Over the years, the upper deck was added in the late 20s and the ivy covered walls and scoreboard were built in front of the original brick walls of 1914 in the late 30s. Fun fact the left field upper deck was built a year before the right field side so the 1927 season had just half of the stadium with two decks. There have been numerous renovations and additions in the outfield but the outer walls have stood for a long time.

Building the current day scoreboard. The original 1914 one is long gone.

The upper deck when only half of it was done.

This is a fact that is forgotten or not known by many. But from 1968–1971, the lower and upper decks had been stripped of the original concrete and had it replaced. The lower bowl having all of its concrete replaced stripped away any remains of the 1914 seating section that was not support beams or steel frames. So when looking at photos of the current renovations seeing the lower grandstand get dug up, note that is mostly 40-some year old concrete being torn away as the original 1914 concrete in the seating area is long gone.

Lower bowl currently getting re-done. Stripped concrete was mainly from the 1968–1971 replacement.

As for the outfield today, there is nothing left from 1914. The wall that stood between the park and the sidewalks of Sheffield and Waveland Avenue was torn down in 2005-2006 for the first bleacher renovation of the 21st century.

The pre-2006 bleachers seen here stood against much of the original 1914 outer wall. That was torn down in the winter of 2005.

So here we sit in 2017 going into 2018 and we look at old Wrigley Field as she gets more of a makeover. And you ask yourself, “So what is left of the original?”

The best place is to look at it from the outside and observe the steel frame around the ballpark along with the roof of the upper deck and the support poles inside the park which hold up the roof and the horizontal frame of the roof support system. That is really what is visibly left from the 1914 structure. The visitor’s clubhouse is really the only original interior room that remains from 1914 and that is set to be re-done soon. And also keep in mind that sections of the steel structure have been re-patched, re-enforced and slightly replaced over the years due to rust in the harsh Chicago weather.

This should hopefully give a general idea of what is original on the outside. The highlighted areas indicate which sections were erected in 1914. (The non-highlighted areas in the lower grandstand indicate where gaps were filled in 1923).

Alex Patt is a contributor for Wrigley Rapport and other news and sports publications. You can follow him and his work on twitter @chifanpatt1