90 Years Ago: Waverly a Long Shot for New Stadium

On Jan. 20, 1922, an article appeared in the Baltimore Municipal Journal with the literal, if unwieldy, title “A Report to the Mayor Concerning the Cost of Converting Mt. Royal Reservoir Into a Municipal Stadium.”

It was prefaced by a note from prominent Baltimore engineer H.G. Perring to the city’s presiding mayor, William F. Broening. The report resulted from a request by Broening for a plan to build a major stadium within the city limits.

In responding, Perring proffers a number of lofty reasons for a stadium, including meeting “the modern ideal of gymnasium and playground facilities of at least 100 square feet of space per pupil.”

He also hopes a stadium might remedy an ugly truth purportedly exposed by the general condition of American fighting forces in World War I, “namely, that a large proportion of the young men of the cities of this country are physically deficient.”

That Perring felt compelled to justify the stadium in such broad terms is curious as Broening’s goal was much more specifically intended: to build a venue large enough to host a pair of prominent military football games.

Just the month prior, hosted a game between a team of Quantico Marines and the Army’s Third Corps Area football team based at Fort Meade.

Homewood Field’s concrete bleachers were designed to hold perhaps 3,000 fans, but with the help of temporary wooden seating, 12,000 to 15,000 were squeezed into the field. The game proved no contest, with Quantico defeating Army, and its young assistant coach Dwight D. Eisenhower, by a score of 22-0.

Unfazed by the uneven score and emboldened by the country’s enthusiasm for all things military following World War I, the Army convinced Broening that without a venue less taxed by a large crowd, the contest would look elsewhere for a home in 1922.

Broening saw the benefit of becoming the game’s permanent host, and also had his eye on a much grander prize: the annual Army-Navy game, arguably the country’s most popular football contest.

The mayor acted quickly in seeking out plans, and before 1921 ended, drawings were completed for a stadium set in the sunken confines of Mount  Royal Reservoir.

Mount Royal Reservoir was no longer used by the city for drinking water and Perring envisioned draining it, and placing an innovative circular bowl stadium in its confines. Fans would enter through a single gate off of Mount  Royal Avenue and at the lowest point would descend to 50 feet or more below street level. A baseball field and running track would also be set in the bowl.

Perring consulted with engineers from Harvard Stadium and the Yale Bowl, both considered among the country’s finest football stadiums. In his report he compares the proposed Mount Royal Stadium to no less company than the Los Angeles and Roman Coliseums. He also includes in his supporting notes mention of “a spontaneous popular approval of the project,” among Baltimore’s citizenry. On this point, he was at least partially wrong.

Retired Oriole manager Ned Hanlon lived in Mount Royal, and as importantly, sat on the city’s powerful Park’s Board that, along with Broening, would ultimately render a decision on both a location and design for the stadium.

Hanlon, clearly a baseball man, saw no great advantage to tens of thousands of football fans wandering through his neighborhood every fall Saturday. He resisted the movement for a stadium, and in the ensuing months, wrangled with the city to locate it elsewhere.

Hanlon was familiar with the Waverly area through his years of playing and coaching Baltimore baseball, and would gradually turn the city’s eye in that direction.