Fenway Park Groundbreaking, September 25, 1911

Photo Courtesy of Boston Public Library

On Monday, September 25, 1911, the official groundbreaking for the construction of Boston’s new baseball stadium at Fenway Park took place.

Red Sox owner John I. Taylor chose park Charles E. Logue, (1858-1919) to build the park, moving it away from the Huntington Avenue Grounds where the Sox had played since 1901, according to MLB’s Fenway Park timeline.

Charles E. Logue

Taylor selected the Charles E. Logue Building Company to carry out the work. The company was founded and owned by Irish immigrant Charles E. Logue from Derry, Northern Ireland, who arrived in Boston in 1881. Logue had headed up numerous construction projects around Boston, including a number of churches and campus buildings for the Boston Archdiocese, and the company had a sterling reputation.

Joining Logue in building Fenway Park were two men from Nova Scotia: Chief Architect James E. McLaughlin, who also designed the South Boston District Courthouse, Boston Latin School and the Endicott School near Franklin Park, and William Colin McPherson, VP and Superintendent of Works at the Charles Logue Building Company. Osborn Engineering Company of Cleveland was responsible for civil engineering services.

The notion of having the park finished in nine months in time for the start of the Boston Red Sox season in April 1912, seems ambitious, looking back, since a lot of the construction work had to be completed during the New England winter. “By the end of the 1911, foundations for the park were in place and the roof had been framed, with work re-commencing after the holiday season,” according to MLB.

A progress report in The Boston Globe, dated January 28, 1912, states, “Work has been rushed all winter, and not until the recent cold spell was there much delay….Everything is in the rough, but a journey about the plant shows what remarkable headway has been made.”

The park was finished in time for the opening game against New York on April 20, 1912.

Fenway Park is part of Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail, a series of landmarks that chronicle the Boston Irish experience from the 17th century to the present. 

For Irish cultural activities in Boston, visit IrishBoston.org.