Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2004

So much more than baseball : No museum building could outshine the treasured Von Colln Memorial Field.

By Sherri Grasmuck

Von Colln Memorial Field, located along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is one of Philadelphia's great treasures - but we don't seem to know it.

In recent public conversations about the Barnes Foundation's possible move to Philadelphia, Von Colln's sports fields have been identified as one of two sites where a new museum building could be located. If the Von Colln fields are bulldozed to make way for the Barnes, what do we lose as a city? To answer this question, we must understand how those fields came about and what happens on them.

In the late 1960s, working-class residents in Fairmount secured permission from city officials to use the park at 23d Street and the Parkway for baseball, the neighborhood passion. The agreement called for maintaining the physical appearance of the land.

Three generations of neighborhood residents took up this challenge. Over time, local men built two batting backstops and created a lush, green surface of well-manicured grass and turf. The Fairmount Sports Association has maintained the fields for 30 years by recruiting more than 100 volunteers every season.

In a study of the field that I completed several years ago, I estimated the market value of the 33,330 hours of adult volunteer labor donated to the Fairmount Sports Association in 2000 as worth about $360,000. This was a tremendous community investment.

More important, over the last 20 years the sports association has transformed itself. Once an all-white league, it has become a visibly multicultural one in a neighborhood once notorious for its past racial exclusion, and in a city that had the last National League team to integrate racially. By the mid-1990s, about one-third of the boys playing in the youth division were African American or Latino.

The highly structured, slow pace of baseball, its imposed grace of waiting, has put people together for long periods of time, offering possibilities for social connection. The diverse spectators - ethnic whites, blacks and Latinos - have bonded through their collective experience and love of the sport.

One parent I interviewed said the Fairmount Sports Association is "one of the few places where kids of different colors, different ethnicities, and different socioeconomic incomes come together for a common purpose in this city."

The field generates enough cross-racial and class understanding to qualify as a fragile success.

This is why Von Colln field is a treasure that should be protected at all costs. It is a unique physical and social space. The baseball league exemplifies the civic involvement and social connectedness that Robert Putnam, a nationally known political scientist and the author of Bowling Alone, has argued is now missing from so much of contemporary American society.

Think of the beauty of this open space in the middle of museum row on the Parkway. These ball fields are an asset comparable to the paintings of ballplayers by Thomas Eakins housed across the street in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Think of the collective memories invested in this land by the local community, and the significance of it to out-of-town visitors who witness amazing, diverse groups of kids playing ball on a spring or summer afternoon.

There also are the coaches. Many kids are growing up without fathers in their homes. In the sports association, however, the children see male and female coaches close up, and can learn something about masculine involvement and the difference in social styles.

We shouldn't consider - even for a moment - sacrificing this open space, the achievements of this community, and the beauty of the old American game of baseball played in an urban setting. It doesn't matter how extraordinary the proposed museum is.

To destroy these fields would represent a colossal lack of imagination and vision. City leaders must boldly defend the populism that is as much a part of Philadelphia's cultural tradition as its world-class art institutions.



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Sherri Grasmuck is a professor of sociology at Temple University and author of the upcoming book, "Protecting Home: Class, Race and Masculinity in Boys' Baseball," an ethnographic study of the social space of the Von Colln baseball field.

Have they ruled out 'juvie-hall' as a location?

I'm not sure if they've ruled it out.

I know the Barnes/Von Colln Field issue has been discussed here before, I just thought this article did a nice job of articulating the social/cultural value of the fields as public space.

Well, I'd say most of us in Fairmount would say that's the best location. But it's not really surprising that the Barnes people & the city would look longingly at Von Colln Field - think of the demolition costs of bringing down the Youth Study Center ("juvie"'s official name) before laying brick one of the new museum building. All you have to do at Von Colln Field is kick out some children, tear down the playground, disenfranchise the little leaguers, then you're all set to build.

Makes "taking candy from a baby" sound a little lame by comparison, doesn't it?

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum.

I've heard a lot about this ballfield issue. Can anyone explain to me why locals in fairmount can't use fairmount park ballfields instead? It seems a bit selfish to me that the community takes a large chunk of the parkway from what it was originally intended for just to have a tee ball field and community relations that could just as easily take place a 1/4 mile form there.

I can't imagine Paris standing for something like this. I play softball in the A&E league every summer and there are atleast a dozen ball fields within a half mile of this one. In particular, there is one just off the other side of the neighborhood.

I'm all for keeping this park for the kids as long as nothing else is slated for development but wouldn't the parkway benefit from some shops and eateries when the barnes opens up. This could turn the parkway into the grand destination it was meant to be, right? I'm not bashing anyone I'd just like to know the thinking.

Well, of course none of the ballfields in the Park proper are within walking distance of the neighborhood. This may not hold water with everyone since others have to drive to the recreational facilities too, but it means something to Fairmounters.

I guess what it boils down to is this: this is public land, and I (and many others) are not convinced that kicking out the little leaguers and selling off the land to private developers so they can profit from building on public park space is really in the best interests of the larger community. It's not just Fairmounters who play on these fields - people come from all over Center City to play here. People walk their dogs here, sun on the grass, play with their kids - it's one of the largest stretches of public green space in Center City. Why should we lose that so somebody can cram in a bunch of boutiques and Starbucks outlets?

I also tire of the Paris comparison. Frankly, I'm delighted that the Parkway bears no resemblance to the Champs Elysees, because the Champs is a tacky, touristy, congested eyesore. I would never want our Parkway to turn out that way.

I think it's pretty special and uniquely Philadelphian that a space so prominent isn't given over to some grand design but instead plays host to such quaint and homely activities as little league and tee-ball. This is one of the things that makes Philadelphia special, that makes it human. It's the same reason I like the Thanksgiving Day parade down the Parkway - it's cheesy and low-budget, like a couple of small town parades thrown together. It bears little resemblance to the corporate extravaganza of nationally-televised events like the Macy's or Rose Bowl parades. It's Philly - provincial, slightly goofy, but totally comfortable in its own skin.

There are many open lots in this part of Center City that should be built on first before a place as unique as Von Colln Field is destroyed - 20th & Market, 22nd & Market, 23rd & Arch, 22nd & Race. Let's put the fancy commercial stuff there and leave the kids to play ball on the Parkway. Maybe we should invite tourists and other visitors to come and sit in the stands and watch Philly youngsters playing tee-ball. I think that would be a pretty nice picture of Philadelphia to send them away with.

Sorry, I don't mean to beat this to death but the field I spoke of is next to the lemon hill house. It is accessile from fairmount via poplar street which dumps you right on to the field. This is probably closer to many of the residents of the area and just as easy to get to by car.

I understand that many people in the area have fond memories for the park but I still can't see why it's so impossible to recreate this just a few short blocks away.

As for the comments on the Champs Elysees, that's your opinion but I think most people would differ with it. We sure shouldn't want to put something like that on the parkway because then maybe more people might want to come and use it. And god knows we don't want any of them tourists bothering you guys playing ball. "Maybe we should invite tourists and other visitors to come and sit in the stands" ??????

I still haven't heard one solid reason why the city should save the ballfield.

It is technically in the limits of fairmount park. Under this logic let's look at all that prime real estate along the Schuylkill north of the art museum we could be turning into Condo's. It should stay a park because that's what it is. That is the purpose of a park, a green space in the city that will stay green even when propety values go up, so as to provide said city inhabitants with a little escape.

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Is this a news report or a trailer for a motion picture?

If you ever get a chance, there is a liitle one to the west too. I think its a little more than 8,500 acres.

There are baseball fields on Lemon Hill? Where? The Lemon Hill park area is very nice, but I don't recall seeing any places where you could successfully play baseball.