Ravinia Baseball Grandstands; Highland Park Baseball Teams Collection.
HIGHLAND PARK – The same year the Chicago Cubs won the 1908 World Series, a semi-pro baseball team known as the Highland Park Crescents was playing to cheering fans at Ravinia Park Stadium.
“Described by one 1904 reviewer as a ‘majestic grandstand’ and dubbed ‘The Stadium’ by Ravinia Park owner Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railroad, the Ravinia Park Stadium sat 2,500 visitors and could be viewed from passing trains,” wrote Highland Park Historical Society archivist Nancy L. Webster in a 2013 Chicago Tribune article.
Webster noted that the Ravinia Park Association and the Ravina Park Company managed and purchased the park and developed it as a cultural venue. The Crescents relocated to another field which “led to the establishment of the Park District of Highland Park in 1909.” Other teams in their league were known as Alma Mater, Peabody Coal, Chicago Union Giants and the Grant Park Specials.
Join Webster as she graciously takes DailyNorthShore.com on a journey back to 1908 to learn about what life was like in Highland Park. A year before the Cubs were off to the 1908 World Series, The Panic of 1907 broke out. The financial crisis occurred over a three-week period when the New York Stock Exchange plummeted almost 50 percent from the previous year.
“The Panic of 1907 is also called Knickerbocker Crisis after the Knickerbocker Trust Company, then the third largest trust company in New York, as the Bank of Commerce ceased clearing funds for the Knickerbocker, setting off the panic,” said Webster.
The panic was sparked by the failed attempt to corner the market on stock of the United Copper Company in October 1907. JP Morgan contributed his own money and convinced New York bankers to follow suit, which brought the crisis to a halt and led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1908.
The same year Ravinia Park was in “jeopardy when the railway went into receivership,” said Webster.
Photo courtesy of Living History of Illinois and Chicago Digital Library.
“Fearing that it would be purchased by a cheap amusement company, a group of prominent Chicago and North Shore residents raised the $15,000 needed to save it in 1907, according to the Living History of Illinois, and Chicago Digital Library. As financial turmoil grew, a Highland Park man led North Shore residents to raise $75,000 to purchase the park. “On June 21, 1911, the Ravinia Company was incorporated and the park re-opened as a summer venue for classical music. The prairie-style Martin Theatre (then called Ravinia Theatre) is the only building on the grounds that dates back to that original construction.”
Ravinia was only one of the reasons that Highland Park was a popular summer resort destination for the rich and famous in 1908. “The Northwestern Military Academy referred to it as such in literature and the Moraine Hotel advertised the area as the Riviera,” said Webster. “Many families who began as summer residents evolved into year-round, and the city government, development of high-quality schools, and the park district reflect this.”
Guyot Family postcard; William, Clementine and son William Guyot at Central Avenue Beach 1908; Visual Photograph Collection Highland Park Archives & Local History Collection; Highland Park Public Library.
What was Highland Park High School like in 1908? Webster said Highland Park High School, 433 Vine Avenue, was known as Deerfield-Shields Township High School and housed students from Highland Park, Deerfield and Lake Forest. “Lake Forest High School opened in 1935 with 450 students who previously attended Deerfield-Shields,” as Webster cited in another Chicago Tribune article. In 1936, the name was changed back to Highland Park High School, and Deerfield High School opened in 1960 for township students living west of Skokie Highway.
Deerfield-Shields Township High School; Early 20th Century; Highland Park Schools Collection.
Deerfield-Shields Township High School 1908 Basketball team; Highland Park Schools Collection.
Here are some fun facts about the World Series, according to the International Business Times:
- The first official World Series took place in 1903 between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates
- The cost of a Grandstand seat for the first World Series was one dollar
- The World Series had only one home run in 1908
- The shortest World Series Game occurred in 1908 when the Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Lions in one hour and 25 minutes
Thanks to the railroad, Highland Park Cubs fans didn’t have to travel to Wrigley Field in a horse and buggy.
Photo courtesy of 1908Cubs.
Highland Park Crescents circa 1905-1910; Gift of the Glader Family Library.