As we barrel toward the Summer Solstice, it's time for another park! This represents the home of the Chicago White Stockings from 1878-1884, when they played at two different baseball grounds where Millennium Park is today. Those grounds
went by a few different names, but we're calling them
Lake Front Park for our bookkeeping purposes.
The reason I'm wording things the way I am is because this is the first (and hopefully the only) park where I've had to take significant ahistorical liberties with the park dimensions in order to make a playable field. Long story short, the site was smack in downtown Chicago, right next to a major railroad depot, and very much in demand. The land was given to the city with the proviso that it couldn't be used for commercial activity so the railroad couldn't have it, and somehow the White Stockings didn't count as commercial (at least at the start). The site was small but workable until 1883, when a fancy new grandstand etc. was built that was the one of the nicest in the league but left foul line distances well short of 200 feet and a CF distance of 300 feet.
The ground rules changed to allow over-the-fence hits to be home runs rather than doubles, and various records were set. By 1885, however, the city decided this was a commercial venture after all and made the White Stockings move to the
first West Side Park. I decided on a hybrid of the first and second parks, given the combination of not a lot of info or depictions of the pre-1883 version with several depictions of the 1883-1884 park but unworkable dimensions.
Google Drive Link to Lake Front Park.
Note to sharp-eyed worriers: The end date on the file is listed as 1883, but it really should be 1884.
The dimensions along the foul lines are reasonably close to the pre-1883 dimensions, but I had to significantly lengthen all the other ones. I couldn't tell from the artists' drawings whether the 1883-1884 grandstand was symmetrical around the pitcher-home plate line or not, for once I let symmetry and common sense prevail for me. As usual, I'm not completely satisfied with the background, particularly out toward Lake Michigan, but I think it'll do. The building behind home plate represents the
Inter-State Exposition Building, for which I grabbed an existing building on 3D Workshop and rescaled to fit. Since this whole project is more look-and-feel than historical hyperaccuracy, I figured that was in keeping.
I'll also note that while I've imported the park into OOTP, set the grid, etc., I haven't played a game with it. I don't see why it shouldn't work, but of course please let me know of any issues!
Enjoy!
Edited 5:41 PM 17 June 2024: Previous zip file was missing the .prk file. Have now removed old link and added new one with .prk file. If you downloaded during that interim, please either redownload or PM me here if you just want the .prk file!