thumb|250px|Recreation Park on 1893 map
Recreation Park (known at various times as Union Park, 3A Park, and the Coliseum) was a sporting grounds and stadium that stood from 1865 to 1905 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which was annexed in 1907 and became the North Side region of Pittsburgh. The park was bounded by Allegheny Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Grant (now Galveston) Avenue, and Boquet (now Behan) Street.
The field was the first National League home for the Pittsburgh Pirates (at the time referred to as the Alleghenys) A much-altered facility appears in later photos, including several newspaper shots of football games.
History
Opened in 1865 as a skating center, the park was adapted for baseball use in 1867. and was later expanded with wooden grandstands to allow up to 17,000 spectators. After the Alleghenys moved a few blocks south in 1890, the main tenant became the Allegheny Athletic Association, and the grounds would eventually be referred to as 3A Park. After the turn of the 20th century, it was converted to a velodrome called the Coliseum.
In 2001, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates built stadiums not far from this site.
Baseball
In the late 1860s and early 70s, Pittsburgh was home to three local amateur baseball teams—the Enterprise Club, the Xanthas, and the Olympics—which played most of their games Union Park. In 1876, the professional Allegheny club played its first game against Xantha at Union Park, winning 7–3. The team posted a record of 18–37 at home that season, finishing 11th in the league.
The ballpark was used as a neutral site for one game in the 1885 World Series and for one game in the 1887 World Series.
In 1887, owner William A. Nimick transferred the club into the National League, Legend has it that, before opening game of the 1887 season, Pittsburgh's catcher Fred Carroll buried his pet monkey beneath home plate.
thumb|left|1899 WUP team at Recreation Park
Football
On November 12, 1892, the Allegheny Athletic Association football team defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in the first known American football game to feature a professional player. The team had hired Pudge Heffelfinger, an all-American guard from Yale, for $500. Decades later, the Pro Football Hall of Fame discovered a page torn from an 1892 account ledger prepared by Allegheny manager O. D. Thompson with the line item: "Game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500."
In 1902, a Pirates-backed football team, the Pittsburgh Stars of the first National Football League, played its home games at the field. The Stars would win the league's only championship against the Philadelphia Athletics, 11–0, at the field.
The Western University of Pennsylvania (WUP) football team played their first game of the 1898 season at Recreation Park, defeating Westminster 5–0. Though WUP played some games at Exposition Park as early as 1900, games were hosted at Recreation Park until the University signed an exclusive contract with Exposition Park in 1904.
thumb|135px|Part of newspaper advertisement from several editions of the [[Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette in August 1883]]
Cycling
Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss secured a lease on the park in 1901 to block the upstart American League from establishing a competing baseball franchise in Pittsburgh. To monetize the grounds, Dreyfuss installed a modern bicycle track to be used for motor-paced races featuring the stars of the sport. Baseball umpire and boxing referee Tim Hurst managed the facility, The venture proved a failure: Cycling did not catch on as a spectator sport, and although the stadium found alternative use as a football venue, there was not enough football to bring sufficient revenue, and Dave Berry, the owner of the upstart professional football team signed to fill dates at the Coliseum (the Pittsburgh Stars), made several key errors that alienated Pittsburgh residents and kept attendance at Stars games below original projections. Dreyfuss let the lease expire in April 1904. The track was torn down and the grounds turned back over to the owners.