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Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium

1951 establishments in FloridaAtlanta Braves spring training venuesBaseball venues in FloridaBuildings and structures in Seminole County, FloridaGrapefruit League venues
Minor league baseball venuesNew York Giants (NL) spring training venuesSports venues completed in 1951Sports venues in Greater OrlandoTourist attractions in Seminole County, Florida
Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium
Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium

Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium is a baseball stadium located in Sanford, Florida. The ballpark is located just south of Lake Monroe on Mellonville Avenue, less than a mile from Historic Downtown Sanford. The stadium stands at the site of the old Sanford Field, which was originally built in 1926. The stadium was built on the old site in 1951 as the Spring Training Facility of the New York Giants. Many Major League stars have played in the stadium including Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Tim Raines, and David Eckstein. The Stadium was refurbished in 2001 at a cost of two million dollars, and now offers many modern amenities along with the classic architecture typical of stadiums built in the early to mid 1900s.The Stadium is currently home to the Orlando Baseball Association (OBA), 25t, 35t and 45t leagues, as well as Sanford Babe Ruth Baseball and the Sanford River Rats of the Florida Collegiate Summer League. It was also home to the Seminole County Naturals of the Florida Winter Baseball League during the 2009 season; the league subsequently suspended operations during the season due to a lack of funding. The stadium previously served as a spring training facility for the New York Giants and Atlanta Braves. In 1942, the Boston Braves used the old field as its primary facility.Sanford Stadium is the location where Jackie Robinson first took to the field in 1946 to play baseball as a member of a white Class AAA International League Team in Daytona Beach, Florida, which was partnered with the Montreal Royals. Unfortunately, this was also during an era of racial segregation and racial tensions, especially in that part of the Southern United States which made up the former Confederacy. By the time Robinson took the field, the crowd of local white citizens in the stands ended up booing him off the field and he was not able to play. The then-Sanford police chief had actually threatened to cancel the game if Robinson took the field.On April 20, 1997, fifty years after Robinson had broken the color barrier in major league baseball, Mayor Larry Dale of Sanford issued a proclamation honoring Jackie Robinson and apologizing for the City of Sanford's, "...regrettable actions in 1946," when the city forced Robinson off Municipal Athletic Field. However, per author Chris Lamb's book, Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training, despite the passage of over half a century, Mayor Dale's proclamation still didn't sit well with all residents of Sanford, especially those long-time residents or their descendants who were present or traced their lineage back to the city in 1946. Many believed that the city had let Robinson play and therefore had no reason to apologize, while others saw no reason to dredge up the sins of the past.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium
Mellonville Avenue, Sanford

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 28.80333 ° E -81.25485 °
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Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium

Mellonville Avenue
32773 Sanford
Florida, United States
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Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium
Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium
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Nearby Places

PICO Building (Sanford, Florida)
PICO Building (Sanford, Florida)

The PICO Building, also known as the PICO Hotel, is an historic 2-story redbrick building located at 209 North Oak Avenue, corner of West Commercial Street, in Sanford, Florida. Built during 1886-1887 for Henry B. Plant of Plant Investment Co. (PICO) to serve travelers arriving in Sanford on his railroad and steamship lines, it was designed by local architect William T. Cotter in the Romanesque Revival and Moorish Revival styles of architecture and built by the H. M. Papworth Construction Company. In 1906 the building was remodeled and sold to the Takach family, which had operated the restaurant for Plant by Mrs. Bertha E. Takach and family, Hungarian immigrants. According to the Orlando Sentinel on April 22,1973, "Mrs. Takch, the owner (of an adjacent restaurant), had such good food... she got all the customers. So, in 1889, Mr. Plant, whose dining room was losing out, made a deal with Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Takach to take over their Pico Hotel." In fact, "they DID, in 1891...from that time, many called the Pico Hotel the Takach Hotel. It had gas lights, white table cloths, and the people who ate there were well dressed, as train travelers always were in that era." "Their restaurant continued in the building for about 50 years. The building's original onion dome was destroyed in a 1950s storm. The building then went on to become an office building used primarily for law offices. In 1989, it was listed in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture prepared by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects and published by the University of Florida Press.The building is a contributing property in the Sanford Commercial District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 15, 1976.