Staff Report M UNICIPAL P LANNING B OARD MAY 20, 2014 A GENDA I TEM 7 Case Number 317 S OUTH T AMPA A VENUE (TINKER HPB2014-00034 F IELD ) L ANDMARK A PPLICAITON Applicant Orlando Historic Preservation Board via Richard Forbes, Historic Preservation Officer Property Location 317 South Tampa Avenue, (District 5) Requested Action Request for Orlando Land- mark Designation for Tinker Tinker Field Citrus Bowl Field Location Map Subject Property S UMMARY Description . Late 1964, area near Tinker Field named McCracken field in honor of Roy McCracken. Findings The Historic Preservation Board has moved to land- mark Tinker Field with the historic playing field and . Home plate moved back 13 feet due to Citrus See summary on page four. 1963 stands as contributing under category a and b of Bowl expansion in 1989. the Orlando landmark designation criteria. 1990 addition of new restrooms and support Background buildings to Tinker Field. Tinker Field is accepted on the National Regis- Project Planner . Original field dedicated on April 19, 1923. ter of Historic Places May 14, 2004. Richard Forbes . Alterations made in early 1930’s. At the April 2, 2014 meeting the Historic Preser- . Football stadium (today’s Citrus Bowl) began vation Board voted to designate Tinker Field construction in 1940. and as a local landmark with the historic playing . “Face lift” given to Tinker Field in 1960 at a cost field and 1963 grandstand as contributing. of $4500. City Council voted on April 28, 2014 to approve . New Stadium stands at Tinker Field dedicated the HPB minutes while instructing the MPB to March 27, 1963. consider recommending an Orlando Landmark . Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives “Integration designation only for the "diamond" of the exist- Now” speech at Tinker Field on March 6, 1964. ing Tinker Field. Updated: May 13, 2014 Page 2 Municipal Planning Board Case Number HPB2014 -00034 May 20, 2014 A NALYSIS Tinker Field was nominated for Orlando Historic Landmark status by the Historic Preservation Board at the March 5, 2014 meet- ing. The Historic Preservation Board voted to landmark Tinker Field with the historic playing field and 1963 stand at the April 2, 2014 meeting. The property is being nominated under categories (a) and (b) of the landmark criteria contained in Section 65.720 of the Land Development Code (LDC). Specifically, the property is significant for its association with broad patterns of our history, and persons significant to our past. Section 65.720. Designation of Historic Landmarks The Historic Preservation Board may designate by ordinance any site, building, structure or object as an Historic Landmark only when appropriate documentation demonstrates significance in history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture and it pos- sesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association and: (a) That is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or (b) That is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or (c) That embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or that represents the work of a mas- ter, or that possesses high artistic values; or (d) That has yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Review Procedure. Ordinarily, properties that are not at least 50 years old shall not be considered eligible for Historic Landmark designation. However, such properties may qualify if in the judgment of the Historic Preservation Board a property has achieved special historical, architectural, environmental or archeological significance as listed under Section 65.720. The Historic Preservation Board shall conduct a public hearing following written notice by mail posted no later than ten (10) days prior to such hearing to the last-known address of the owners of the affected property of the date, time and place of said hearing. In addition, a sign containing the same information shall be placed on the affected property no later than ten (10) days prior to such hearing. Upon recommendation of the Historic Preservation Board, the Municipal Planning Board shall consider the appropri- ateness of such recommendations and may recommend to the City Council adoption of an ordinance designating one or more His- toric Landmarks based on the same criteria considered by the Historic Preservation Board, which criteria are described in this sec- tion. Nomination. Historic Landmarks may be nominated by the Historic Preservation Board, a member of City Council, owner of the proposed landmark or an authorized agent, a government agency, any organization with vested interest in the property and a recog- nized interest in historic preservation, or any person. (Ord. of 9-16-1991, Doc. #25102; Ord. of 6-20-1994, Doc. #27635) T INKER F IELD H ISTORIC C ONTEXT The National Register of Historic Places nomination notes that the first major league team to visit Orlando was the Philadelphia Athletics in March of 1915. They played two pre season games against the Birmingham Barons at the Fairgrounds. Orlando was a baseball-starved town and its citizens like what they saw. In June of the same year, Bert Humphries, formerly with the Chicago Cubs, organized the Orlando Baseball Club. When he left in 1920, the club hired Joe Tinker to be their new Manager. It was not long before Tinker, also a former Chicago Cub, had the city thinking about major league baseball. In March of 1921 Tinker’s team played in two exhibition games at the fairgrounds against a group of major league players organized by his friend, Clark Griffith. Inspired by the demonstration, the city decided to build a new field. The original field and buildings at Tinker Field were begun in December of 1922. The ballpark was dedicated as “Tinker field” on April 19, 1923 and is emblematic of the rise of professional baseball in the state of Florida and Orlando. The original field and stands, which cost $50,000.00, are located to the south of Lake Lorna Doone. The ballpark was said to be larger than the New York Yankees Field with a distance from home plate to the right field fence being 278 feet and to left field over 310 feet. See Ap- pendix B which is the National Register nomination for additional baseball history and information on the site. Sometime in the early 1930’s, alterations and additions were made to the buildings. The WPA appropriated money for the con- struction of a football stadium to the east of Tinker Field in 1940 which formed the beginning of what is now known as the Citrus Bowl. In 1960 the baseball stands got a $4500 facelift in preparation for the winter training season of the Washington Senators. A new grandstand was designed in 1962 and opened on March 27, 1963. One of the largest baseball crowds in the history of the Page 3 Municipal Planning Board Case Number HPB2014 -00034 May 20, 2014 A NALYSIS field came to see the opening game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees. The new grandstands were de- signed by Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Architects and Engineers and cost $310,000 with $67,000 spent on lighting. The grandstand is a V-shaped steel beam and truss grandstand that wraps around the home plate and the right and left lines. The lower structural system for the seating areas is precast concrete panels, concrete block and poured concrete. The design is typical of vernacular style grandstands built after World War II. The 1962 drawings by Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Architects and Engineers show one area as “existing press box” which appears to remain today in a somewhat altered state. According to the National Register nomi- nation form, 909 of the grandstand seats came from Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. Griffith Stadium was built in 1911 after a fire destroyed an earlier stadium and the last game was played in 1961 and the stadium demolished in 1965. The historic wood slatted seats are located on the upper levels of the covered portion of the Tinker Field grandstands where they are more protected from the elements. The remainder of the seats use a similar iron, folding frame but the seat slats are made of gold anodized alumi- num which would be typical for the early 1960’s. It is unclear whether all the frames are from Griffith Stadium or the iron frame was still available in 1963. This new grandstand had additional concrete block buildings on the west and south sides that served as ticket booths and concession areas. Tinker field was renovated again in 1990 at a cost of $1.7 million. The earlier concrete block ticket and concessions buildings were demolished and this renovation added the metal roofed, concrete block entry buildings, ticket offices, restrooms and conces- sion stands that surround the west and south side of the 1963 grandstand and create an interior court. Comparing the original 1962 construction drawings and the 1990 construction drawings, it appears that few changes other than a replacement metal roof and wall panels, paint and additional minor modifications were made to the 1963 grandstands. The 1963 open press box portion of the stands has had some minor modifications to openings in the metal wall material at the rear of the stadium at the upper level. The 1963 grandstand continues to have architectural integrity as the modifications made in 1962-63 were not significant. National Register of Historic Places Listing Tinker Field was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on May 14, 2004 (see Appendix B). The successful nomination was based on the playing fields association with baseball which met criterion a of the National Park Service NRHP crite- ria for designation in the area of Entertainment/Recreation.