Exposition Park Marker

In a Pittsburgh parking lot, a small metal marker preserve a piece of the local sporting history. It marks the approximate location of home plate at the city’s long-since demolished Exposition Park. 

Technically there were three iterations of Expositon Park, all located in roughly the same location on the north side of the Allegheny River. Between 1879 and 1915, these stadiums hosted a number of professional baseball and football games. The first incarnation of the park was the first venue to host professional baseball games in Pittsburgh. After it was damaged by a fire and flooding, the stadium was rebuilt closer to the river, but eventually abandoned.

The third Exposition Park was built in the 1890s. It featured a roofed grandstand and could seat about 10,000 spectators. In 1903, several games of the first modern World Series were played at Exposition Park, between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The park was the home field for the Pittsburgh Pirates for a number of years, before Forbes Field opened in 1909.

This marker is in a parking lot between the current PNC Park (home of the Pirates) and Heinz Field (home to the Steelers) stadiums; it was also the site of Three Rivers Stadium, which hosted both teams from 1970 to 2000.