UTC’s Historic Engel Stadium A Heritage Development Assessment Chattanooga, Tennessee Prepared by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University Spring 2014 1 HISTORIC ENGEL STADIUM PREPARED AT REQUEST OF The Engel Foundation (Chattanooga, TN) Janna Jahn, Executive Director PREPARED BY MTSU Center for Historic Preservation Graduate Research Assistants Joseph Bryan Thomas Flagel Brad Miller Jenna Stout MTSU Center for Historic Preservation Staff Dr. Rachel Martin Dr. Carroll Van West SPRING 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The MTSU Center for Historic Preservation wishes to thank Janna Jahn, Executive Director of the Engel Foundation, and the Board of Directors at the Engel Foundation. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Background …………………….…………..…………………………………....……….3 Why Engel Stadium Matters............................................................................................................4 UTC’s Engel Stadium in Historical Context……………………………………………………...7 Phases of Engel Stadium’s Heritage Development…….………………………………....……....9 Engel Stadium as a Heritage Asset………………………………………………………………10 Architectural Description………………………………………………………………....……..11 The Engel Foundation’s Work………..……………………………………………….………....13 Historic Interpretation: Part of the Starting Lineup…………………..…….………………........15 Exhibit Interpretation………..……………………………………………….………………......23 Engel as an Event Venue………………………………………………………………………...30 Community Outreach…………………………………………………………………………….31 Marketing………………………………………………………………………………………...33 Preservation Needs Assessment & Recommendations……………………..…………..….……38 Facility Management……………………..…………..….………………………………………57 Staff Recommendations……………………..…………..….……………………………………62 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………....…..……65 Appendices………………………………...……………………………………………..……...66 Drawing of Engel Stadium, circa 1989……………………...……………...……67 The Historic Engel Stadium Walking Tour……….……………………………..68 Reconstruction of the “World Largest Scoreboard”……….……………………71 In the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum From the Joseph W. Engel Estate………………………………………………..75 3 Project Background In 2012, the Engel Foundation approached Ripken Sports, an athletics consulting firm, to develop an assessment for the future of Engel Stadium. The final product, entitled the Ripken Report, focused on Engel Stadium’s potential as a sports stadium, but it did not recognize Engel Stadium’s value as a historic site. Janna Jahn, executive director of the Engel Foundation, consulted with the Tennessee Department of Tourism to find an organization that would produce a heritage development plan for Engel Stadium. The Tennessee Department of Tourism put Ms. Jahn in contact with Dr. Carroll Van West of Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation (CHP) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In July of 2013, the CHP made an initial visit to Engel Stadium to evaluate the site’s needs and began the process of communicating with stakeholders. Based on a discussion with the Engel Foundation board, Chancellor Steve R. Angle of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (UTC), and community members, Dr. West determined that a heritage development plan would be a valuable planning document to guide the future work of the Engel Foundation and UTC in running Engel Stadium as a historic site. Dr. Rachel Martin, the new assistant director of the CHP, expressed an interest in the project and was appointed as the chief staff member. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin, a group of graduate students from the Spring 2014 Historic Preservation Seminar at MTSU spent the semester working on a heritage development plan for the stadium. A preliminary site visit occurred in February 2014. During the first visit, Dr. Martin and graduate students met with Ms. Jahn and interested stakeholders to assess the needs of the project. Students returned for a follow-up visit in mid-March to photograph the condition of the stadium, discuss Ms. Jahn’s vision for the site, and look through the Engel Foundation’s archival collection for pertinent information. Based on the needs expressed by the Engel Foundation, UTC, and the Chattanooga community, this project focuses on four major areas: Historic Interpretation, Exhibit Interpretation, Preservation Needs & Recommendations, and Marketing. It is our hope that this heritage development plan will guide both the short-term and long-term needs of the Engel Foundation and the surrounding community. This project is phase one of an ongoing relationship between the MTSU CHP, Engel Foundation, and UTC. 4 Why Engel Stadium Matters The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Historic Engel Stadium stands as a monument to the past, it lives in the present as a ready-to-use venue, and it possesses a vibrant future. Constructed during the Great Depression, the ballpark embodies a new economy, where educational innovation, civic empowerment, and heritage tourism come together. It is a place with stories to tell, and memories to be found. These stories and memories begin with the ballpark’s namesake, a man who became one of the foremost promoters of Chattanooga and of baseball itself. Much like the structure that stands today, Joe Engel embodied tenacity and imagination. The son of immigrants, Engel worked his way up through the Washington Senators, first as a batboy, then as a mascot, later as a major league pitcher, and then a longtime scout. In 1929, Senator owners appointed Engel president of their farm team, the Chattanooga Lookouts. In this capacity, Engel founded and built the Lookouts’ state-of-the-art stadium. In an executive career that spanned from 1929 to 1965, he proceeded to become known as the Barnum of baseball, hosting major league exhibition games, a faux “elephant hunt,” a house raffle, and he tried to sign the female pitcher Jackie Mitchell. Twice he saved the team from being sold, rallying local support to secure funds. The only challenge he could not overcome was the advent of television, which drew more and more patrons away from his communal stadium and into the seclusion of their living rooms. Today, there is a public longing for a return to the tangible, original, and memorable. Engel Stadium can meet those needs. It holds stories of community, when the local ballpark worked as a sports venue, social center, and a source civic pride. It also recounts a time of racial and gender struggles, when the African American Chattanooga Choo-Choos played to segregated stands, and the female pitcher Jackie Mitchell could strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in one inning but would not see equality in her lifetime. It is also the story of resilience. The old stadium’s very existence makes it a rare spectacle in an increasingly modernizing landscape. Over the last ten years, the Chattanooga community has committed itself to saving the stadium by repairing the roof, removing some of the modern structures and forming the Engel Foundation. The University of Chattanooga has taken ownership of the building, and at a recent meeting, their president proudly announced the school’s commitment to saving the structure. 5 Their combined efforts have returned the complex to Joe Engel’s original vision: it is once again a local gathering place and a monument to the glory days of baseball. Their efforts have opened new avenues for the stadium to function as an educational and historical venue. Through a growing network of public and private partnerships, UTC’s Engel Stadium can become a major center for a modern audience, an audience that includes the city, region, and country. For the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who saved and owns the stadium, the structure is a concrete example of their commitment to the community and to heritage preservation. Of all the minor league baseball stadiums built before the Second World War, only two are currently owned by institutions of higher learning - Vermont University’s Centennial Field, and UTC’s Engel Stadium. With its off-campus location, the site also serves as an ideal, shared linking point between the university and its surrounding neighborhoods, a way for them to build upon “town and gown” relationships. For baseball purists, UTC’s Engel Stadium is a must-see destination, and it bears the footprints of legends. Willie Mays played here in his youth, as did Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in their prime. At 471 feet, Engel’s straightaway center remains one of the longest in the history of professional baseball. Hall of famer Harmon Killebrew remains the only hitter ever to blast a home run over its centerfield wall. The major motion picture 42 was filmed here, and the real life Jackie Robinson indeed played at Engel in 1952. For the students of UTC, the stadium can provide invaluable internships, classroom fieldwork, and volunteer opportunities in historical research, architecture, marketing, community outreach, and event planning. The site could also be the setting for fall semester kickoffs, movie nights, intramurals, and concerts. For the Engel Foundation, they have brought life back to a once-dying park, and they are a model for how to save and invigorate historic sites in the twenty-first century. Rather than encasing its rooms in plexiglass and roping off its field, the Foundation rightfully sees UTC’s Engel Stadium as an artifact in motion, where visitors can come to recount old memories and to make new ones. For the community of Chattanooga, this is the place of memories. Engel not only housed the Lookouts, it also served as a soup kitchen during the Great Depression, a