History
Lane Field grew out of a 1925 Navy athletic field at the waterfront end of Broadway. When Bill Lane moved his Hollywood Stars franchise south in 1936 and renamed it the Padres, the Works Progress Administration rebuilt the grounds as a wooden ballpark in about two months, and the park carried Lane's name.
The Padres opened there on March 31, 1936, and a local teenager named Ted Williams played for the club that first summer. The team later won a 1937 playoff title and a 1954 pennant at the park, and in 1948 Johnny Ritchey broke the Pacific Coast League color line in a Padres uniform.
Salt air and termites steadily weakened the wooden structure. After the 1957 season the Padres moved to Westgate Park in Mission Valley, and Lane Field was dismantled and replaced by a parking lot serving the cruise terminal.
In 2015 the lot was converted into Lane Field Park, which commemorates the ballpark with a small diamond and markers.
Why it matters: It was San Diego's first home of Pacific Coast League baseball and the place where Ted Williams began his professional career.
Timeline
- 1936Ted Williams plays for Padres[2]
Teenage San Diego native Ted Williams appeared in 42 games for the Padres.
- March 31, 1936
The relocated Padres beat Seattle in the first game at the WPA-built wooden park before 8,178 fans.
- 1937
A roof over the main seating was completed before the 1937 season.
- October 7, 1945
Look photographer Maurice Terrell photographed Jackie Robinson and two other Black players working out in the empty ballpark.
- 1948PCL integrated[2]
Johnny Ritchey joined the Padres, becoming the first African-American player in the Pacific Coast League.
- September 8, 1957Final season ends[1]
The Padres left after the 1957 PCL season for Westgate Park in Mission Valley.
- 1958
The termite- and salt-damaged wooden park was dismantled and the site paved for parking.
- 2015
The former parking lot was dedicated as a city park commemorating the ballpark.
The site today
| Physical status | Site redeveloped[2,3] |
|---|---|
| Current use | Lane Field Park, a city park dedicated in 2015 on the former cruise-ship parking lot, with a commemorative diamond[1,3] |
| Surviving remnants | No structure survives; a commemorative plaque (placed 2003, moved 2015 to Broadway and Harbor Drive) marks the site[1,3] |
| Mapped location | Former venue site |
Street View near the former site · Satellite view (external, current imagery)
Teams & events
| San Diego Padres | MLB · 1936–1957 |
|---|
Listed here are organizations that used this physical venue. A franchise's history and a venue's history are tracked separately.
Venue facts
| Location | N. Harbor Drive and W. Broadway (NE corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive), downtown San Diego waterfront, San Diego, California[1,2] |
|---|---|
| Venue type | Ballpark |
| Sports | Baseball |
| Level | Minor League |
| Opened | March 31, 1936[1,2] |
| Last used for sports | September 8, 1957[1,2] |
| Demolished | 1958[2,3] |
| Physical status | Site redeveloped |
| Original capacity | 8,000[1,2] |
| Capacity notes | Wikipedia gives 8,000 in 1936 and an infobox range of 9,000-12,000; SABR says about 8,000 seats. Record attendance 13,466 on 1948-05-02 (Wikipedia). |
| Construction cost | $20,000 (Wikipedia) or $25,000 (SABR)[1,2] |
| Owner / operator | Built by the Works Progress Administration on a former U.S. Navy athletic field; Padres owned by Bill Lane |
| Closure | Deterioration of the wooden structure from sea air and termites; the Padres moved to the new Westgate Park in 1958. |
Documented details
Connected venues
Sources
- Lane Field (baseball), Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-10-19Supports: address, capacity, closed, construction cost, coordinates, current land use, opened, remnants, teams
- Lane Field (San Diego), Society for American Baseball Research. Accessed 2026-10-19Supports: address, capacity, closed, construction cost, demolished, opened, teams
- Lane Field (1936-1957) and Lane Field Park, Clio. Accessed 2026-10-19Supports: current land use, demolished, remnants
Research confidence
Some facts on this page rely on a single source or are still being corroborated. Treat specific dates and figures with care. Last reviewed 2026-10-19.
Where sources disagree (3)
- Construction cost: $20,000 (Wikipedia) vs $25,000 (SABR).
- Exact last-game date (1957-09-08) appears only in Wikipedia; SABR gives only the 1957 season.
- Demolition year 1958 comes only from Clio; SABR describes dismantling after the 1958 move without a date, and Wikipedia gives none. Clio is also internally inconsistent about the 1957/1958 move.
See something wrong or missing? Suggest a correction or submit a source.