Today's Tidbit... Building and Opening Harvard Stadium

During the summer and fall of 1903, construction workers in the Boston area busily mixed more than 90,000 bags of cement to form slabs that would become Harvard Stadium. Built on the site of Harvard's baseball field, construction began on June 22, 1903, following the last home baseball game of the 1903 season.

Harvard played eight home football games in their old stadium as the new one rose beyond one goal line. They also played away games at West Point and Penn.

Click on the image to enlarge it and see the fans standing at the top of Harvard Stadium watching the game below. ('Panorama of the Harvard-Indian Game on Soldiers Field Saturday,' Boston Globe, November 2, 1903.)

Rather than try to complete the stadium before winter, the 450 to 700 construction workers on the scene each day stopped building and readied the stadium for Harvard's final games with Dartmouth and Yale. They still needed to pour 600 of the 4,860 concrete seating slabs, build the towers at each end of the U-shaped stadium, and complete the upper promenade, but 500 tons of steel and 31 rows of seats were in place in most locations. Temporary seating stood on the promenade, and the site was cleaned up and made safe for the coming games.

The stadium was not quite ready for prime time when it opened in 1903. ('On The New Grounds,' Boston Globe, November 14, 1903.)

In addition to the interest generated among football fans, those in the construction industry worldwide monitored the stadium's progress since it was the world's first sizable steel-reinforced concrete structure.

In building the stadium there was no precedent to go by. It was all an entirely new application of concrete construction and the progress was watched by builders, contractors, and engineers everywhere.

'On The New Grounds,' Boston Globe, November 14, 1903.

Harvard was 9-1 following the Penn game and practiced in the new stadium for the first time on the Wednesday preceding the stadium's opening game against Dartmouth. Next to the reports of the practice was an article concerning another technological marvel, indicating that a Brit, C. S. Rolls, had set a world automobile speed record for one kilometer, averaging 83.75 MPH. The following year, Mr. Rolls was introduced to his future partner, Mr. Royce, leading them to produce automobiles for Harvard future grads.