Madison Originals Magazine Madison Originals Magazine August 2011 | Page 14
917 E. Mifin Street is home to the stately
Breese Stevens Field, long renowned as a
place for athletes to play and for the city
to meet. Not only a reminder of Madison�s
sporting past, the structure�s history as
a Civil Works Administration project
hearkens back to the Depression-era New
Deal, when the United States government
invested in civic improvement by putting
people back to work. As loved now as it
was during its rst games in the 1920s,
Breese Stevens Field is currently used as
a soccer pitch by an amateur team, the
Madison 56ers, as well as various college
and high school soccer teams.
Daina Penkiunas, National Register
Coordinator for the Wisconsin Historical
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Wisconsin State Journal article about the
eld.�
Initially, Daina says, baseball was
the rst and most important use of
the eld. �There was a big ballgame
as a kickoff. It featured the Madison
Blues, a minor league team that played
there in the 1940s.� The photographic
record (publicly accessible through the
Wisconsin Historical Society website)
�shows many photos of various local
baseball teams playing there. The eld
was also used by the city high schools
as a football stadium, and city high
school track meets were held there in the
1940s.� And that�s not all. �I also found
photographs that show it was used for
large religious ceremonies�almost like
big masses,� says Daina. �In the 1940s,
there are photographs of something
called �holy hour��[people] marched to
the service from Truax Field. That was
in 1944.�
The diverse range of events held at Breese
Stevens Field is not as inexplicable as it
may seem. �Until the 1960s it was the
only city park that had lights, so it was
really one of the few places that you
could have an evening or a night event�
especially a sporting event,� says Daina. � NewspaperARCHIVE [has articles dated]
in the 1970s [that] show they were still
playing baseball games there, but it was
boys� tournaments and boys� tee-ball.
Over time, though, it essentially became
known as a soccer eld. So within the
context of the city, it was a big space
where people could come together and
watch all kinds of local sporting events.�
With so many interesting events held
there, Breese Stevens Field has become
a xture in Madison history. �I think
it is very important in the sense that
people are interested in group events,
and there is this interest in athletics and
large places where people can gather,�
says Daina, who also points to the
signicance of the eld�s location. �It
wasn�t way outside of town; it was very
accessible,� she says. The result was that
the eld became much more a part of
the city and community than it might
have if it had been located farther away.
�It relates a lot to high school histories
in Madison�before all the schools had
their own eld. It�s part of the identity
of the city. Through the 1950s, it kind
of dened [Madison�s] participation in
sports and other events,� says Daina.
These factors add up to a level of
signicance that has generated interest
in preparing a nomination for the eld�s
placement on the National Register 14 | Madison Originals Magazine BREESE STEVENS FIELD By Erin Abler original landmark