Jacksonville Baseball History

Professional baseball in Jacksonville began in 1904 with the Jacksonville Jays, but its longest lasting home is the Durkeeville ballfield that opened as Barrs Field in 1912.

The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp's franchise history says professional baseball in Jacksonville was founded in 1904, when the Jays joined the newly formed South Atlantic League, and that Jacksonville hosted the league's first game at Dixieland Park on the Southside, a 1-0 win over Macon, at a time when fans had to take ferries across the St. Johns River. The National Park Service's National Register nomination for the field records that the trouble of ferrying spectators to the south side helped build support for a first class ballpark north of the river.

That park still stands at Myrtle Avenue and West Eighth Street, where the nomination calls it the first municipal field owned by the City of Jacksonville and notes the City still owns it. It has carried several names:

The National Register record, NRIS 13000484, lists the property as "Durkee, Joseph H., Athletic Field" at 1701 Myrtle Ave. in Jacksonville, Duval County, with Marsh and Saxelbye as architects.

Before World War II the Myrtle Avenue field hosted minor league openers, major league spring training, University of Florida football and a rebuilt 1935 grandstand.

The NPS nomination says Amander W. Barrs, owner of Dixieland Park, announced the new park in December 1911 on land owned by Dr. Jay H. Durkee, and that the Jacksonville Tarpons christened Barrs Field on April 18, 1912, with a 4-1 win over Savannah, attended by Governor Albert W. Gilchrist and Jacksonville Mayor William S. Jordan. Major league clubs trained there, by the nomination's account:

Football shared the Jacksonville field until Fairfield Stadium, later the Gator Bowl, opened in 1925. The nomination says Barrs Field hosted more University of Florida games than any field outside Gainesville between 1912 and 1925, including the first game between Florida and Georgia that the nomination calls undisputed, on November 6, 1915, a 37-0 Georgia win; it notes that Georgia counts a 1904 game as the first.

The sources disagree on how the City bought the park, and both versions are given here. The City of Jacksonville's JaxParks page says Durkee Field was bought by the city for $348,000 in 1932 and that the stadium was built in 1936 and 1937. The NPS nomination says the City signed a binder in 1926, paid $48,000 for the field in 1932 through the Playground and Recreation Board, lost the old grandstand to a fire of unknown origin in April 1934, and built a new steel and brick grandstand designed by Marsh and Saxelbye in 1935 for an estimated $23,000, opened with an exhibition on March 25, 1935, and expanded in 1937.

The Jacksonville Red Caps were the city's Negro League club, owned by the Jacksonville Terminal Company and based at Durkee Field, whose 1937 addition was built largely for segregated Black seating.

The NPS nomination says the 1937 addition to Durkee Field was completed mainly to accommodate seating and provide separate facilities for African American spectators and players under Jim Crow laws, and it describes a shorter hallway to the locker room originally reserved for African American teams. The Red Caps were originally composed of porters at the Jacksonville Terminal Station. They joined the Negro American League in 1938, relocated to Cleveland in 1939, and came back to Jacksonville for the 1941 and 1942 seasons, drawing clubs such as the Kansas City Monarchs and Birmingham Black Barons. The Jumbo Shrimp franchise history also dates the Red Caps' Negro American League debut to 1938 and their return to 1941 and 1942.

The City's park history names Henry Aaron, Leroy Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, James Cool Papa Bell and William Judy Johnson among the players who passed through Durkee Field on their way to baseball's Hall of Fame. The field mattered to Black Jacksonville beyond baseball: the nomination records it as the home field of Edward Waters College football from about 1928 to 1964, the site of the Flower Bowl for historically Black colleges from 1943 to 1948, and a staging ground for civil rights era political rallies in 1956 and 1959. A bronze statue of Negro League star Buck O'Neil, dated about 2006, stands at the park near its brick and metal name sign.

In 1953 the Jacksonville Braves and the Savannah club became the first South Atlantic League teams to break the color line, and Hank Aaron was the league's Most Valuable Player.

The NPS nomination says that after Samuel Wolfson acquired the Tars in 1952 he made them a Milwaukee Braves farm team under manager Ben Geraghty, and in 1953 hired three African American players, Henry "Hank" Aaron, Horace Garner and Felix Mantilla, after which attendance skyrocketed. It records that the 19-year-old Aaron endured a full season of verbal abuse and was forced to seek lodging in private homes. The Jumbo Shrimp history gives Aaron's only Jacksonville season this way:

Two details differ between the sources. The franchise history says Wolfson purchased the Tars in 1953, while the NPS nomination dates his purchase to 1952. The nomination says Aaron led the Jacksonville Braves to the 1953 Sally League pennant, while the franchise history says the Braves won their first South Atlantic League championship in 1956. Both agree Aaron reached the major leagues in 1954.

Jacksonville's pro team left Durkee Field for a new park beside the Gator Bowl in 1955, later named Wolfson Park, and moved next door to today's ballpark in 2003.

The NPS nomination says Samuel Wolfson secured the site in East Jacksonville next to the municipal stadium in 1954, and that the park, costing about $500,000 and later named for him, opened on March 16, 1955, with an exhibition between the Washington Senators and the Cincinnati Reds; Marsh and Saxelbye, the Durkee Field architects, also worked on the original Wolfson Park. The Jumbo Shrimp history says the club played its final season at Wolfson Park in 2002 and moved across the parking lot to the new Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in 2003, setting an attendance record of 359,979 that first season and 420,495 in 2005.

The team's ballpark page says the park opened in 2003 as the first completed project of the Better Jacksonville Plan, at 301 A. Philip Randolph Blvd., with ticket questions answered at 904-358-2846. As of October 18, 2026, that same Jacksonville page uses two names for the park, VyStar Ballpark and 121 Financial Ballpark, with the field itself called Bragan Field.

The old Durkee Field is now a City of Jacksonville park at 1701 Myrtle Avenue, with a ballfield, a museum, picnic shelters and parking.

The JaxParks page lists baseball, benches, parking, a concession stand, picnic shelters and tables, restrooms and security lighting. It says the name changed to J. P. Small Memorial Park Stadium in July 1980 for James P. Small, who coached and taught at Stanton High School for 33 years and at Raines for one year and died in 1975. The NPS nomination dates the City Council resolution renaming the field to January 1980, sponsored by Councilwoman Sallye B. Mathis, and credits Small with nine city football championships and a 312-76-18 record.

The NPS nomination tells the demolition story a little differently, saying talk of demolishing the grandstand had begun by the late 1970s, that Mathis secured a 1980 upgrade, and that the stadium was reopened and dedicated on March 20, 1985, under her successor, Councilwoman E. Denise Lee. The 2022 project, by the City's account, includes new entryways, parking, landscaping and an outfield museum, with a first phase of sports lighting, artificial turf, fencing and dugouts. As of October 18, 2026, the City page still says the field "will be ready for play in fall 2024." Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the JaxParks James P. Small Park page, the NPS National Register nomination and NPGallery record for the field, and the Jumbo Shrimp ballpark and franchise history pages.