The Elysian Fields
This area in Hoboken, NJ, was one of the most important locations in nineteenth-century American sports. Just a short ferry ride across the Hudson from Manhattan, it was used like a public park by New Yorkers, although it was private property.
John Cox Stevens inherited the area from his father, a very successful engineer and inventor, and established an amusement park there in 1831. Stevens was involved in a number of sports in one way or another. He won large amounts on "the race of the century" between Eclipse and Henry in 1823, then bought both of the horses and retired them to stud. When pedestrianism became the rage, Stevens staged "the great race" in 1835, putting up a prize of $1,000 for anyone who could run ten miles in less than an hour.
In 1844, the New York Yacht Club was founded at a meeting aboard Stevens's yacht, Gimcrack, and he gave the club part of the Elysian fields as a site for its first clubhouse. Later, Stevens was the leader of a syndicate that built the yacht America, which sailed to England in 1851 and won the trophy now known as the America's Cup.
The St. George Cricket Club, established in 1840 through a merger of the New York and Long Island clubs, played most of its important games at the Elysian Fields from 1844 until 1866.
When the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club was founded in 1845, its members decided to move their games from Manhattan to the Elysian Fields. The first game under the new Knickerbocker rules was played there on October 6, 1845.
During the late 1860s, the New York Athletic Club held most of its major track and field meets at the Elysian Fields.