Backers search for way to save War Memorial Stadium
GREENSBORO — Residents and leaders have no lack of ideas about what to do with the 84-year-old War Memorial Stadium.
But no one group seems to have the political will — or capital — to make any single idea a reality.
“Parks and Recreation cares about the field. The preservationists care about the stadium, and the neighborhood wants it to be a place that gets a lot of public use,” said David Wharton, chairman of the city’s Greensboro Historic Preservation Commission.
“It’s not been possible for anyone to coalesce around a single plan.”
It’s been five years since the stadium’s last minor-league baseball game. The lack of movement toward any commitment to transform it has frustrated the groups.
The city staff’s latest idea — a $1.3 million renovation that is as much demolition as it is restoration — has stadium advocates scrambling to come up with new alternatives.
Advocates’ ideas include looking for new pots of money and renewing political pressure to force city leaders into action.
“We need a champion to do this. We need some leadership on this,” said David Hoggard, a longtime advocate for the stadium.
The old ball field was built in 1926 as a memorial to the dead of World War I. Local residents chipped in to build it.
When organizers fell short of the money it would take to build a massive, U-shaped stadium, they build the J-shaped one instead.
By the late ’70s, what was then among the oldest minor-league stadiums was already proving out of date for folks in the baseball business. Team owners fought the city for decades to upgrade the stadium.
In the new century, private investors instead backed a modern downtown field, what is now NewBridge Bank Park.
Preservationists worried that the new field would mean the end of the Yanceyville Street gem, but War Memorial Stadium is being used as it was intended in 1926: as a home for amateur sports.
The stadium hosts more than 200 college and amateur league baseball games annually. It’s a function the Parks and Recreation Commission has fought to preserve.
Commission members have thrown their support behind the city staff’s recent recommendation: a $1.3 million job that will restore the historic arched entrance, but get rid of much of the inside.
The city staff has warned: If the city doesn’t get moving on spending the $1.3 million — bond money approved years ago — that cash might go to something else.
People who have fought for the stadium’s preservation say the plan amounts to little more than the destruction of the place’s historical significance.
“It was a bit jaw-dropping,” said Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro.
Briggs and others are researching ways to pay for more renovations, much the way the International Civil Rights Center & Museum did.
“We’re inspired by the civil rights museum’s ability to incorporate federal and state tax credits that are available for national register historic properties and how that might leverage the funding that the city of Greensboro already has in place,” he said.
But even if there were money for a large-scale restoration, there seems to be agreement that the city doesn’t need a large stadium.
“It doesn’t make financial sense to put 1,500 seats in there when I don’t know the last time we had something in there that used 500 seats,” said Greg Jackson, the Parks and Recreation Department director.
Residents of the Aycock Historic District, adjacent to the ball field, have long hoped the stadium could become a focal point for the area.
One recent idea called for it to be turned into a city marketplace, with vendor stalls and an inviting plaza.
Some residents envisioned community events such as concerts.
But that proposal was too expensive — estimated at more than $3 million. And it wasn’t agreeable to the city’s entertainment gurus or the sports lovers.
“What we try to do is minimize the use for things other than baseball,” Jackson said. “If you start doing concerts out there all the time, (the field) will get tore up. Then the college teams won’t like it too much.”
All that leads the stadium back to where it is today: an aging ball field with no plans for another life.
Hoggard is trying one more thing. Last Wednesday, he asked the city’s Historic Preservation Commission to consider making the stadium part of the Aycock historic district.
If that happened, it would be within the commission’s jurisdiction to approve renovations, which could prevent or at least delay demolition.
The commission will consider the issue at its May meeting. The approval process could take six months and would require City Council’s consent.
Hoggard isn’t sure whether the commission will be able to force the city to protect its own property by using its own laws against it. He said it might be largely a ceremonial gesture — but a powerful one.
“I think it’s at a desperate point right now,” Hoggard said. “It’s time to force their hand.”
Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: The proposed renovations at War Memorial Stadium, shown in an artist's rendering, would tear down the park's roof and much of its seating, leaving only the historic facade. Metal bleachers would replace stadium seats.
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