Qualla: World War Memorial Stadium

World War Memorial Stadium: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the eighth anniversary of Armistice Day - November 11, 1926 - Greensboro dedicated a stadium to the dead of the war that everyone still believed had ended all wars. There had only been one World War to memorialize, so the city did not yet need the qualifier that would later be chiseled into its name. The stadium was built mostly for football, shaped like a backwards J wrapped around a running track. Within four years it had a baseball diamond planted in the curve of that J, and the ballpark on the northeast corner of Lindsay Street and Yanceyville Avenue began a second life that has now stretched almost a century.

World War Memorial Stadium: The Arches and the Plaques

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Walk up to the main entrance and the most memorable feature meets you first: a triple-arched gateway, ornate and improbable in front of a working ballpark. The minor-league club that lived here for decades hung quarter-sphere awnings on each arch in red, white, and blue. The arch...

World War Memorial Stadium: Patriots, Hornets, and Bats

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1930 the Greensboro Patriots of the old Piedmont League moved in, after decades of intermittent play at nearby Cone Athletic Park. They installed lights and put a roof over the box seats. The diamond was first laid out tight to the J's curve, like a scaled-down Polo Grounds wi...

World War Memorial Stadium: Shibe Park Seats and a Bull Durham Cameo

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When Philadelphia's Shibe Park was demolished in 1976, Greensboro acquired a load of its seats and installed them here - so a Carolina League fan in the 1980s might sit on a bench that had once held a Connie Mack Athletics fan watching Lefty Grove. In 1988 the triple arches made ...

World War Memorial Stadium: Still Standing, Still Playing

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The minor league club lobbied through the 1990s for a new ballpark. They got one. First Horizon Park, since renamed First National Bank Field, opened downtown in spring 2005. World War Memorial Stadium did not get torn down. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2...