Beech Street Grounds

The Beech Street Grounds were a baseball-only stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire between 1892 and 1895. Constructed at the corner of Beech and Valley Streets on land owned by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, the grounds were part of a section of the city known as the Plains, a relatively flat area on which children and organized amateur teams had played baseball since at least as early as 1880. The park was composed of a wooden fence and two covered wooden grandstands, and its main (third-base-side) entrance was located on Beech Street. In its first two years, the park was home to a minor-league baseball team, the Manchester Amoskeags of the New England League.

In 1895, local businessman Thomas Varick purchased an interest in the park, moved the grandstands, constructed a bicycle track, reoriented the baseball diamond so that home plate was along the west side of the field (previously it had been at the southwest end of the field), moved the entrance to Valley Street, and renamed the complex Varick Park. In 1913, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company constructed Textile Field (now Gill Stadium) on the site.