Hinchliffe Stadium

Hinchliffe Stadium (pronounced "Hinch-liffe", although many pronounce it "Hinch-cliff") is an historic 10,000-seat municipal stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, built 1931-32 on a dramatic escarpment above Paterson's National Landmark Great Falls, and surrounded by the city's National Landmark Historic District, the first planned industrial settlement in the nation (chartered 1792). It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to significant Negro League baseball during America's Jim Crow era.

Early Days

The stadium, a large concrete oval with near-continuous seating laid out like a classical amphitheater, was inspired by a decade-long popular "stadium movement" in the 1920s, and was finally brought to fruition through the persistent efforts of Mayor John Hinchliffe, for whom it is named. It opened on September 17, 1932, as a combination Schools facility and a "paying investment" for the working people of industrial Paterson, New Jersey, who were by then struggling through the early years of the Great Depression. (Many workers laid off from the mills found work under a New Deal-financed program to provide enhancements to the stadium, 1932-34.)

The stadium immediately played host to Negro League and "barnstorming" or exhibition games, and its first full baseball season concluded in 1933 with the Colored Championship of the Nation, the Negro League equivalent of the World Series. That same year, the New York Black Yankees made the stadium their home, a tenure that lasted till 1945 and was interrupted only once, when the team booked Triborough Stadium on Randalls Island in New York for the 1938 season. Their return to Hinchliffe affirmed a now time-honored preference of great New York City sports teams for making their actual home in New Jersey. After World War II, the Black Yankees left Hinchliffe and took up residency at Red Wing Stadium in Rochester, New York.

The baseball played at Hinchliffe Stadium was some of the best and most competitive in the game, including prodigious athletes like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, and "Cool Papa" Bell, among many others. Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, the legendary player who broke the American League color barrier in 1947, grew up in Paterson playing football and baseball in Hinchliffe Stadium for Paterson's Eastside High School, and was scouted from Hinchliffe for the Newark Eagles in 1942.

Hinchliffe became an important venue for boxing (Diamond Gloves, precursor to the Golden Gloves), auto-racing (precursor to NASCAR featuring pre-Indianapolis racing events), and professional and semi-pro football. Victory Bond rallies held at the stadium during World War II drew sports stars and New York and Hollywood celebrities by the dozens. Among the many notable events headlined at Hinchliffe were shows performed by Abbott and Costello. (Lou Costello was born and raised in Paterson's Eastside section.)

Hinchliffe's traditional Thanksgiving Day games often featured Paterson's classic Eastside/Central [later JFK] High School rivalry back-to-back with pro or semi-pro football. For several seasons the stadium also played host to the Clifton High School Fighting Mustangs and other local teams.

Later Days

At first Hinchliffe, sometimes called "City Stadium," was municipally owned and only managed by the Paterson Schools. In 1963, as the Schools assumed full ownership, they undertook an array of repairs and upgrades that included repositioning the baseball diamond and adding fill to the area above and along the river (the "cliff" area, called "The Valley of the Rocks") in order to enlarge the football field and lengthen the track. In the following decades, the stadium did yeoman service for both school sports and major public events, including--from the '70s on--concerts, antique car shows, and the fireworks displays for the Great Falls Festivals that have become a favorite feature of Paterson's Labor Day celebrations. Duke Ellington held one of his last major concerts here in 1971.

In 1983, the field received another upgrade under Mayor Frank Graves. These repairs made previously temporary stands permanent, and added handicapped access, storage facilities, and Astroturf on the field. Soon after, the stadium managed two seasons as the home of professional soccer (New Jersey Eagles, 1988-89).

The general decline of the school system in Paterson over the next decades meant the diversion of maintenance resources away from the stadium. Although the facility continued to be used through the '90s, underfunding forced its closing in 1997. The two Paterson high schools returned to playing their home games at Bauerle Field, near Eastside High. HInchliffe Stadium was threatened with demolition and placed on Preservation New Jersey's List of Most Endangered Historic Sites that same year.

But the threat also sparked a new movement to find ways and means of restoring and revitalizing this historic venue. A group of local citizens formed the non-profit Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium, announcing in September 2002, on the 70th anniversary of the stadium's dedication. A month later, Schools Superintendent Edwin Duroy announced a proposal to revitalize the facility into a stadium complex. Under a grant from the Paterson Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) the Friends successfully applied to place the stadium on the State and National Registers of Historic Places (2004). Again with HPC funding, they developed a website [(www.hinchliffestadium.org)] that tells Hinchliffe's colorful and illustrious history (launched 2006).

Current Efforts

Hinchliffe Stadium continues on the public radar even as it (sadly) continues to deteriorate. Mayor Jose (Joey) Torres's non-binding bond resolution for restoring the stadium received round public endorsement on the local ballot in 2005. The Schools have shown interest in mounting a funding drive that will not only bring the stadium back to its former glory but envision it as both a multiplex sports facility (basketball, swimming, ice hockey) and a Sports Business Academy for the Schools. There has been some lively discussion about making it an enhancement to New Jersey's planned "urban park" for the Great Falls. Some see a logical extension of landmark protection to the stadium, a project that would incorporate into a single thematic cultural landscape this cluster of three great historic sites: Paterson's Great Falls, the National Landmark Industrial District, and Hinchliffe Stadium.

Source: Hinchliffe Stadium National Register Application, 2003, with additions by the supervising editor of that application and The Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium.

In conjunction with the Great Falls Festival in Paterson NJ the first Hinchliffe Stadium racing expo will take place on Sunday August 31st from 1pm to 5 pm. Admission is free.

Hinchliffe Stadium that was a once glorious racing facility in North Jersey is seeing a renewed interest as a potential racing facility. Come out and see current and vintage race cars alike on display inside Hinchliffe Stadium. You might get to see the TQ midgets of the American Three Quarter Midget Racing Association make a parade lap around the stadium.