Site Record
Metadata
Site# |
204 |
Site Name |
Pine Tree Park |
Description |
When the Pine Tree Athletic Association was incorporated in 1904, the organization leased land in Knightville and built a fenced-in athletic field there that they named Pine Tree Park. Entrance to the park was via the end of E Street in Knightville. The field covered much of the land in what is today known as Mill Creek (the field is now covered by the Shaw's Plaza, Waterman Drive, Market Street, and the Mill Creek Shopping Center). The field was at its most active from 1904 to 1910, when the Pine Tree Athletic Association funded the South Portlands, now a semi-professional baseball team. The team was known as the South Portlands in 1904, then changed its name to the Portlands in 1905 and 1906. In 1907 when a competing organization formed (the Portland Baseball Association), that group started a second Portland baseball team; to prevent confusion, the Pine Tree Athletic Assocation added the letters "P.T." to its team jerseys and the team became known as the Pine Trees. In those years, the field was kept busy with baseball in the summer, through September, then the field was painted with gridlines and used for football games in the fall. By the end of September, 1904, the Pine Tree Athletic Association announced that the season had done so well, they would build a new grandstand and move the existing one to the side to use as bleachers. The new grandstand/pavilion was estimated to seat 600 people, with offices, dressing rooms and baths for players underneath the seating. After the 1910 season, the usage of Pine Tree Park dwindled. The field was mostly used for school baseball and football games. Starting in 1924, the field began to be used as a popular spot for circuses and carnivals. The George C. Shaw Company purchased the field in 1950, along with other lots of land in Knightville, as it planned to open a grocery store location in Knightville. Development gradually took over the former athletic field. The first Geo. C. Shaw grocery opened next to Ocean Street in 1951. The Mill Creek Shopping Center opened in 1955 on some of the former park land. One of the up-and-coming players on the South Portland team in 1904 was Harry Lord, who would go on to play for the Boston Americans in 1907 (that team was renamed the Boston Red Sox in 1908). In 1909, Lord arranged for an exhibition game at Pine Tree Park - on October 5, 1909, the Boston Red Sox played against an "All-Maine" team of local stars (with Red Sox players Lord and Bill Carrigan playing for the Maine team). |
