Recreation Park was a sporting grounds and stadium located in what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The stadium existed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the park's heyday, the location was considered to be within Allegheny City, but in 1907, the entire municipality was annexed by its larger neighbor and eventually became Pittsburgh's North Side.The field was the first National League home for the Pittsburgh Pirates (at the time referred to as the Alleghenys) of Major League Baseball. It also hosted many football games of the University of Pittsburgh (at the time referred to as the Western University of Pennsylvania) of the NCAA. In November 1892, the park was the location of the first known American football game that included a professional player.There is only one known photograph of the grounds in a baseball stadium configuration, discovered in 2015 in a 121-year-old time capsule left by scientific instrument maker John Brashear. However, several newspaper photos of later football games played there survive.HistoryOpened in 1865 as a skating center, the park was adapted for baseball use in 1867. Known prior to 1885 as Union Park, the stadium had an early capacity of 2,500, and was later expanded with wooden grandstands to allow up to 17,000 spectators. After the Alleghenys moved a few blocks south in 1890, the main tenant became the Allegheny Athletic Association, and the grounds would eventually be referred to as 3A Park. Beyond the turn of the 20th century, it was called the Pittsburgh Coliseum, in line with the cycling phase. The park was located within the blocks of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and Grant (now Galveston) Avenues and Boquet (now Behan) Street. In 2001, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates built stadiums not far from this site.
