Before the 4th of July Fire That Started It All
The 1932 arson of Dugdale Park is often pointed to as the first domino that eventually brought major league baseball to Seattle. This is the story of the park and the team before the fire.
I would guess that most Mariners fans who are even moderately online have heard of Dorktown’s The History of the Seattle Mariners. They posit that the Mariners are the most fascinating team on Earth, and spend over three and a half hours digging into the wild history of our favorite baseball team.
The video series traces the origins of the Mariners back to an arson on July 4, 1932. The victim of the arson was Seattle’s premier baseball field, Dugdale Park. Named for Daniel E. Dugdale, the man known as the father of professional baseball in Seattle, it stood at the corner of Rainier Ave S and S McClellan St. If that rings a bell, it’s because that was also the site of Sick’s Stadium, home of the Seattle Rainiers and Seattle Pilots.
Known interchangeably as Dugdale Park and Dugdale Field, it was Dugdale’s second venture into stadiums. In 1907, he opened Yesler Park at 12th & Yesler Way. However, he did not own the grounds and was unable to secure a lease for it. The aggravation of constantly negotiating and lobbying against the threat of a street being run through his park motivated him to look elsewhere.
He bought a plot of land in the Rainier Valley and, after regrading projects were finished in the neighborhood, got to work building his new stadium. On September 8, 1913, he opened Dugdale Field. It was a state of the art ballpark, boasting the only double decker grandstand west of Chicago, according to Dugdale.1
Among the all-wood ballpark’s other features were opera chairs and boxes, a 30-foot scoreboard in center field that connected with the press box by telephone, a “mammoth flag pole” also in centerfield to display the 1912 pennant won by his Class B Northwest League Seattle Giants, and “rest rooms galore”.2 The playing field was also much roomier than the old confines on Yesler. In the new park, any balls hit over the fence were sure to be recognized as well-earned home runs.
The Seattle Daily Times gushed about the new park, writing that “Dugdale never expects to build another ball park, so he is making this one a good one.”3
After the 1918 season, Dugdale sold his majority interest in the club. In 1919, the club joined the Class AA Pacific Coast League, where it began the season as the Purple Sox before picking up the Rainiers nickname for the first time.
After 1919, Bill Klepper took over the team and changed the name to the Seattle Indians. Klepper left the team and went down to Portland for an eventful few years before returning to Seattle baseball as part of the Indians’ ownership group following the 1927 season. After winning a pennant in 1924, the club struggled to find any measure of success and Klepper, as team president, struggled to keep the team solvent. The ownership group even went so far as to offer ownership shares to the general public to bring in more money:
The solution to the team’s struggle, as seen by Klepper, was the solution that many an owner would point to. The team—clearly—needed a new ballpark.
On April 14, 1929 Klepper told the Seattle Daily Times that he wanted to begin building a 17,000 seat baseball stadium at 2nd Ave N and Thomas Street (on the site of the current-day Seattle Center). Architects had made their plans, all the plots had been purchased (at least according to Klepper anyway), and financing was in place. All that was needed was the City Council to okay vacating streets and rezoning, then work could begin. The new stadium, notably, would have stucco exteriors and the “stands and bleachers will be of wood, reinforced by steel and concrete.”4
The City Council was less excited by this idea, though. After a long series of hearings, it voted to rezone the area, but warned that this was not a vote in favor of the new ballpark. Indeed, the Council seemed reluctant to commit to a park in that location. It did suggest alternatives to Klepper, including Denny Park, which would be available following the completion of the Denny Regrade, scheduled for September 1930 (it would actually finish in December), or the site of the North Seattle car barn at 5th and Mercer.5 Klepper stubbornly refused the alternatives.
It’s just as well the team didn’t get the go-ahead to begin building a new stadium; at the end of the season they applied for and were given a loan from the Pacific Coast League to help cover their payroll at the end of the season.6
Then, the stock market crashed and the nation was plunged into the Great Depression.
Rumors bounced around that Klepper and the rest of the ownership group were trying to sell the team. Whether they couldn’t find a buyer or never wanted to sell, the team remained in their hands.
Although the City Council wasn’t thrilled with the idea of building a new ballpark, they did have a sports stadium the Indians could move into. Civic Stadium, at the site of the current Memorial Stadium in the Seattle Center, was built as a football field, but also served as a sandlot for amateur and school teams in the area. The city was interested in bringing its professional baseball team closer to the city’s core and out of the valley to its south. A 30-year lease of Civic Stadium for the club was floated in the summer of 1930. Once signed, the city would foot the bill to improve the field and make it fit for professional baseball.
In the meantime, the club tried to drum up interest in the losing team by offering the novelty of night baseball and enticing fans with Ladies Nights and other promotions. Nothing seemed to increase attendance, and the financial situation grew worse by the day. The club was in debt to the Pacific Coast League, the ownership group was fighting amongst themselves in court over finances, and a bank was threatening to foreclose on shares of the team. In short, they were a disaster on wheels. The Seattle Daily Times wrote of them:
The Seattle Indians and Prexy Bill Klepper have become, in the eyes of the league, something to be suffered, but avoided. They will remain that way so long as present baseball conditions prevail in Seattle.7
In early 1932, Klepper announced the club was abandoning the idea of moving to Civic Stadium. It seems they couldn’t come to an agreement with the concessionaire, and for want of a fair deal on hot dogs and cracker jacks, that was the end of that. Instead, they would play out the 1932 season, then tear down Dugdale Park and build a new park in its place.
On July 4, 1932, the Seattle Indians celebrated the holiday by losing both games of a doubleheader to the San Francisco Seals. When the games ended, the teams hopped aboard a train and headed south to the Bay Area where the Seattles were set to begin a series in Oakland.
That night, the park’s night watchman, George Felton, completed his rounds just after midnight and was headed toward the north stands when:
…he noticed a blaze near the back wall. He ran to the club office and called firemen, but every moment, he said, the flames increased in size and spread along the stands. He said he smelled oil in the north stands.8
It would become a three-alarm fire. The Seattle Daily Times described it:
The blaze started in the north stands and quickly spread througout the structure. By the time firemen arrived the grandstands were a mass of flames and a wind blowing across the ball field was fanning the fire.
…Telephone and light poles caught afire. High tension wires were snapped by the heat. Red embers and sparks flew five hundred feet, many of them falling on three houses across Rainier Avenue.
…Thousands of spectators, lured by the flaming red sky over the Rainier Valley district, thronged adjoining streets.9
The ballpark was burned to a crisp.
With no other options following the fire, Klepper allowed his team to play at Civic Stadium. Because Klepper never signed a lease for the stadium, the city never improved the field. For five years, the Indians played on the hard dirt on a field that was meant for football.
At the end of the 1937 season, federal agents raided the team’s office to collect whatever money they could find to apply to the team’s tax debt.
Clearly, Klepper and the Indians were done.
*****
The fire at Dugdale Park was initially ruled an accident. It was either a carelessly discarded cigarette or perhaps an Independence Day firework gone astray. The real cause wasn’t uncovered until May 1935 when Robert Bruce Driscoll was arrested for arson. He eventually admitted to setting over a hundred fires in Seattle, including the one that burned the baseball park to the ground.
******
Fortuitously, Rainier Brewery owner Emil Sick agreed to buy the team at the end of 1937. The former home of Dugdale Park was still a vacant lot and Sick immediately went to work there building a new stadium. He named it Sick’s Seattle Stadium, the home of his Seattle Rainiers.
The team’s fortunes immediately turned around. In 1938 they competed for the PCL title, and drew fans happily to the valley south of the city.
30 years later, the Rainiers finished their run in Seattle. Their stadium became the home of the major league Seattle Pilots.
And the rest, is history.
“Seattle’s Handsome New Ball Park Will Be Opened Tomorrow.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), September 7, 1913, 29.
“Seattle’s Handsome New Ball Park Will Be Opened Tomorrow.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), September 7, 1913, 29.
“Seattle’s Handsome New Ball Park Will Be Opened Tomorrow.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), September 7, 1913, 29.
“Prexy Klepper Asks For Help To Build Park.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), April 14, 1929, 27.
“Seattle Club Moving Ahead On Park Plan.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), August 13, 1929, 18.
“Indians Are Granted Loan.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), October 5, 1929, 10.
“Bill’s Plan To Swap His Vote For Coin Fails.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), November 8, 1930, 8.
“Ball Park Destroyed In Mystery Night Fire.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), July 5, 1932, 1.
“Ball Park Destroyed In Mystery Night Fire.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), July 5, 1932, 1.