Lake Front Park

Opened in 1871

About Lake Front Park

Lake Front Park was an MLB stadium in Chicago, Illinois. It opened in 1871 and closed in 1884. Its only tenant was Chicago White Stockings (MLB, 1871, 1878–1884). On our ranked lists it ranks 43rd shortest-lived of 273 stadiums and arenas with known opening and closing years. It has also been known as Union Base-Ball Grounds (1871).

Appears in

43rd shortest-lived of 273 stadiums and arenas with known opening and closing years
26th shortest-lived of 83 MLB stadiums with known opening and closing years
94th longest single tenancy (6 years) of the 100 longest on record in MLB stadiums

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Venue Information

Year Opened

1871

Year Closed

1884

Location

Chicago, Illinois

Elevation

583 ft

178 m above sea level

Location derived from the venue's coordinates using data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).

Elevation of the venue's coordinates from USGS and NASA SRTM elevation data, via Open Topo Data.

The site today

The site is now part of Millennium Park, a park.

From OpenStreetMap data near the venue's recorded coordinates, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Maps show what is there now, not the old footprint.

Teams

Home seasons at Lake Front Park by team, 1871–1884. Bars use each team's colors at the time; the table below lists every season.

Team	League	Years
Chicago White Stockings While based here: 8 seasons · 394-234-9 regular season MLB · 1871, 1878–1884 Territory map on ImperialismMap Union Base-Ball Grounds 1871 23rd Street Grounds 1874–1877 Lake Front Park 1878–1884 West Side Park I 1885–1891 All 7 home venues of the Chicago White Stockings Union Base-Ball Grounds 1871 23rd Street Grounds 1874–1877 Lake Front Park 1878–1884 West Side Park I 1885–1891 South Side Park II 1891–1892 West Side Park II 1893–1915 Wrigley Field 1916–present	MLB	1871, 1878–1884

Records are each team's full-season results while it was based here, home and away games alike, from final scores. They are not records of games played at this venue.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Lake Front Park built?

Lake Front Park opened in 1871.

What is on the site of Lake Front Park today?

The site is now part of Millennium Park, a park.

Where did the Chicago White Stockings play after Lake Front Park?

After leaving Lake Front Park in 1884, the Chicago White Stockings moved to West Side Park I in 1885. They played there until 1891.

Sources

Where the facts on this page were read from. How VenueStats compiles them.

Open Topo Data (Public domain): Elevation.
OpenStreetMap (ODbL): What stands on the site today.
OpenStreetMap Nominatim (ODbL): Location.
VenueStats compilation: Opening and closing years, name history and teams (compiled by VenueStats from Sports Reference and Wikipedia).
Wikidata (CC0): Coordinates (Wikidata places the building within 212 m of this point).

Historical Names

Lake Front Park

1878 - 1884

Current

Union Base-Ball Grounds

1871 - 1871

Location

Coordinates: 41.8825, -87.6221

View on Google Maps

Nearby Venues

Venue	Years	Distance
Soldier Field	1924–	1.4 mi
Chicago Coliseum	1899–1971	1.4 mi
Credit Union 1 Arena	1982–	1.8 mi
Wintrust Arena	2017–	2.0 mi
West Side Park I	1885–1891	2.0 mi
West Side Park II	1893–1915	2.0 mi

Straight-line distance between the venues' coordinates.

References

Teams on Wikipedia

Chicago White Stockings

Every source for the facts on this page is listed under Sources.