Owen J. Bush Stadium was a baseball stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It was home to the Indianapolis Indians from 1931 to 1996. It was also home to a few Negro league teams, as well as a Continental Football League team, the Indianapolis Capitols, who won the league's final championship in 1969. The stadium closed in 2001, and since 2014, has been converted into apartments.
History
Construction
Bush Stadium was commissioned by Norm Perry, owner of the Indianapolis Indians baseball club, in 1931. The facility was originally named Perry Stadium as a memorial to his brother Jim, the former owner of the club who had died in a plane crash during a solo flight from Schoen Field on the eastside of Indianapolis in 1929. The $350,000 stadium was designed by Osborn Engineering of Cleveland, Ohio, and built by the William P. Jungclaus Company of Indianapolis. The firm also built Yankee Stadium and constructed or renovated nearly 25 steel and concrete stadiums across America.
Construction began in late May 1931 and Perry set the inaugural game for September 5, 1931. By late August much remained to be done: The grandstand roof was incomplete. The 13,000 grandstand seats and right field bleachers were not completed until the week before the first game. The game was held despite the main entrance, lobby, and administrative offices not being finished until a few weeks later. Initially there was no stadium lighting because the lighting that had recently been installed at Washington Park was to be moved to the new stadium. The Indians lost to the Louisville Colonels, 3–4.
English ivy was planted on the brick outfield walls of Perry Stadium prior to its opening. P. K. Wrigley liked the appearance of the ivy, and subsequently instructed the iconic Wrigley Field ivy in Chicago to be planted. The ivy in Indianapolis remained until 1996, when the Indians moved to the current Victory Field ballpark downtown.
The formal dedication was held on July 1, 1932, in which the Indians again lost to Louisville, 6–11.
Negro League park
During the 1930s, Perry Stadium was home to many Negro league teams. These included the ABCs (1932, 1938, and 1939), American Giants (1933), Athletics (1937) and Crawfords (1940). Later, it would be home to the Indianapolis Clowns, a barnstorming team that was well known for "comical antics". The Clowns won the Negro American League championship in 1952, with the help of Hank Aaron. They played in Indianapolis from 1944 to 1962. Later, the Clowns featured Toni Stone, the first female Negro leagues player in history.
After Perry sold the baseball club to Frank E. McKinney and former player Donie Bush that year, he retained ownership of the stadium.
Alternative uses of the facility
In 1987, Bush Stadium was dressed up in different ways to be used as the stand-in for both Comiskey Park and Crosley Field during the filming of Eight Men Out, which was about the "Black Sox Scandal", the throwing of the 1919 World Series.
Indianapolis also hosted the Pan Am Games in 1987, and the baseball tournament was held at Bush Stadium.
Decline
Starting in the 1980s, maintenance problems became more pronounced as the stadium's physical structure deteriorated. In 1985, the city studied what would be needed to upgrade the ballpark in order to attract a Major League team. The initial study indicated that the size and condition of the playing field were adequate, but that seating would need to be increased to at least 40,000, and that the ancillary areas (dugouts, bullpens, concession stands, and ticket booths) would eventually need to be upgraded.
A second study that looked at the issue of parking said that between $9.8 million and $52.3 million would be needed for additional parking, with another $22 million for street improvements to handle the additional traffic. On May 9, 1985, Mayor Bill Hudnut recommended to the parks board that it not move ahead with the project, citing the cost and the disruption to the neighborhoods around the stadium. The 138 loft units were completely leased when the complex opened on July 27, 2013.
The dirt portion of the infield has now been paved with stamped red concrete, but the lights that lit up the field at night still stand. Much of the exterior façade has been preserved, and many of the historic features, such as the owner's suite and the ticket booth, have been incorporated into the loft apartments. There are studio, one, and two-bedroom units in the complex. The cost of the project was $13 million, of which the city funded $5 million. The Stadium Lofts complex includes both the loft apartments within the former stadium building and newly constructed flats.