Jersey City Times: Roosevelt Stadium – Frank Hague’s Art Deco Ballpark on the Bay
- Museum Jersey City History
- Aug 29
- 5 min read
This is the eighth in a weekly series of essays on Jersey City’s illustrious sports history. It complements the Museum of Jersey City History’s current exhibit Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There at the Apple Tree House (298 Academy Street). The exhibit is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. until October 15.
by Peter Begans August 29, 2025
Roosevelt Stadium was one of Mayor Frank Hague’s greatest achievements. It was built during the depths of the Depression, using $1.1 million in federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had sent the funds in gratitude for Hague’s unmatched ability to deliver Democratic electoral votes, despite New Jersey’s Republican pedigree.
The Art Deco ballpark replaced the city’s airport at Droyer’s Point on Newark Bay. The stadium’s grandstand and matching left and right field bleachers seated 25,000 but could hold more than 30,000. Ramps conveniently connected the upper and lower parts of the stadium. When finished, it was judged to be one of the finest minor league ballparks in the United States.
Hague named the stadium for the President, but he always felt it was his ballpark. On Opening Day, he made sure city businesses and public employees bought enough tickets to fill two stadiums. A lot of the tickets went to kids who enjoyed half days off from school. No wonder everyone cheered as the Mayor paraded in from center field for the singing of the national anthem and to throw out the first ball.
Hague named it Roosevelt Stadium, but he always considered it his ballpark. Here he throws out the first ball on Opening Day 1946 as 30,000 fans witnessed Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in American organized baseball.
During its lifespan, Roosevelt Stadium sheltered several minor league baseball teams. The Jersey City Giants had the longest run, from 1937 to 1950. The Stoneham family, owners of the New York Giants, brought their Triple-A farm team to Jersey City for Hague’s grand opening. The Stonehams had Jersey City roots, and the city became a Giants stronghold as several farmhands quickly made it to the Polo Grounds.
“What a wonderful stadium,” future Hall of Famer Monte Irvin recalled years later. “[Roosevelt Stadium] was the class of the International League and better than many [major league] stadiums.” Irvin batted .373 in 1949 and .510 with ten home runs in eighteen games in 1950. The Jersey City Giants were regular season champs in 1939 and 1947, but no Giants team would ever win a pennant through post-season play.
Roosevelt Stadium is most famous as the site where Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in United States professional baseball. He did it on April 18, 1946, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals, in a prelude to breaking the major league color barrier a year later. The sellout crowd sensed the historic moment.
“When Robinson made his first appearance on the field, the integrated crowd stood up and cheered. He played second base and batted second in the Royal lineup as Montreal battered Jersey City, 14 to one. Robinson wrapped out four hits in five trips to the plate with three singles and a 335-foot homer. He scored four runs and batted in four runs. He stole two bases. His dancing, taunting leads, flustered Jersey City pitchers into committing two balks. When the game ended, it took the delighted rookie more than five minutes to reach the comparative safety of the dressing room. Squealing, adoring fans mobbed his path.”
– Harvey Frommer, Rickey and Robinson
But minor league teams in the NYC area had difficulty drawing crowds once the three major league teams began to have their games televised . . . and once Frank Hague stopped selling Opening Day tickets after he stepped down as mayor in 1947. Jersey City’s attendance plunged from 337,000 in 1947 to 63,000 in 1950. The Giants moved their Triple-A franchise to Ottawa, Ontario, in 1951, leaving the ballpark vacant for a decade.
It was the major leagues, specifically the Brooklyn Dodgers, that breathed new life into the stadium in the mid-1950s. The Dodgers would play 15 games in Jersey City in 1956 and 1957 before they moved permanently to the West Coast.
On August 15, 1956, the Dodgers hosted their rival, the New York Giants, at Roosevelt Stadium before a crowd of 26,385. The fans cheered the Giants and booed the Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, who went 0 for 4. The scoreless game was decided when all-time great Willie Mays knocked the only home run ever hit completely out of Roosevelt Stadium. It came off of 1956’s National League Most Valuable Player Don Newcombe.
On June 5, 1957, Don Drysdale, another future Hall of Famer, defeated the Chicago Cubs 4–0 in the first of his 49 major league shutouts.
Few remember that Roosevelt Stadium was also the site of a major league All-Star Game in the fall of 1960. The end-of-season exhibition, which would be unheard of today, followed the Yankees’ loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960 World Series. Bill Mazeroski, who hit the dramatic ninth inning home run to give Pittsburgh the victory, did not go to Disneyland to celebrate. Instead, he picked up some spare cash by appearing in Jersey City. So did Whitey Ford, the Yankees pitching ace, who many regretted was not called upon to face Mazeroski just days earlier.
Also in 1960, Roosevelt Stadium was where the Havana Kings sought refuge after fleeing Castro’s Cuba. The city threw its doors wide open to welcome the Cuban team, and they became the Jersey City Jerseys of the International League. A number of its players became notable major leaguers, among them Leo Cardenas, Cookie Rojas, Vic Davalillo, and Mike Cuellar. The Jerseys left town after the 1961 season to become the Jacksonville Suns.
In the late 1970s, Minor League Baseball again returned to Roosevelt Stadium with the Cleveland Indians’ Eastern League farm club. The next year, Jersey City became the farm club of the Oakland A’s. Future Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson had an outstanding season, stealing 81 bases and hitting .310 in his next-to-last minor league season.
But by the mid-1980s, the stadium stood abandoned as a baseball field. Light towers were falling, and dugouts were flooding. The city would choose to save a fortune on repairs by tearing the Art Deco stadium down. Former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine, who was never crazy about the Dodgers’ sojourn in New Jersey, said, “A few years ago I was in Brooklyn, and I told a youngster, ‘I used to play in Ebbits Field.’ It didn’t mean anything to him … and I suppose someday somebody’s going to say, ‘Roosevelt Stadium used to be right here,’ and that won’t mean anything, either.”
Today the property at Droyer’s Point is the site of Society Hill, a middle-income housing development.
About Peter Begans
Peter Begans is the curator of MJCH’s Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There. He was born and raised in Jersey City and has had a long career as a teacher, journalist, speechwriter and public affairs representative.
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