City Council Approves $2.25 Million to Rebuild Hinchliffe Stadium and Repair Bauerle Field

PATERSON, NJ - City officials are borrowing $2.25 million to begin the renovation process on historic Hinchliffe Stadium and to make repairs on Bauerle Field.

Sitting on the crest of a hill overlooking the city, Hinchliffe - one of two old Negro League ballparks still standing - has been closed for more than decade. Overgrown with weeds, the crumbling building stands as a haunting reminder of the Silk City's heyday and municipal official see its eventual reopening as part of Paterson's rebirth.

A bond ordinance approved on March 30, will provide about $1 million for architectural work and engineering studies on Hinchliffe. It also will pay for preliminary work, including improved security to prevent people who are homeless from continuing to use it as a place to stay, officials said. After it closed, there have been numerous fires apparently set by squatters, further damaging the stadium, said Board of Education President Theodore Best.

"If you're a real Patersonian, the last thing you want to see is Hinchliffe never be rebuilt,''' said Councilman Benjie Wimberly, who coached Eastside High football and baseballl team in the 1990s who played their home games there.

"It's a city legend, and it'll definitely be part of the city's rebirth,'' WImberly said.

In 2009, city voters overwhelmingly approved a $15 million bond referendum that included about $11.5 million put towards Hinchliffe stadium, $1.2 million towards Baurele field and the rest of the money going to renovating the Paterson Armory.

The engineering studies will determine exactly how much renovations will cost.

Built in the early 1930s near the Great Fallls, the stadium is named after the mayor at that time, John Hinchliffe. the stadium hosted Negro League games when baseball was segregated and had been the scene of generations of high school football games until it shut down because of disrepair in the late 1990s. Hinchliffe also has hosted boxing and auto racing. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and in May 2010, the stadium was designated “one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2010 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”

Patersonians have heard talk about Hinchliffe Stadium’s renovation for years. And the bond ordinance approved approved last week had been in limbo for five months as city officials struggled with their fiscal crisis. The state refused to sign off on the stadium bonds until after the city council approved a balanced budget.

The $1.2 million for immediate repairs to Bauerle Field will have more immediate impact on city sports life. The boar's artificial turf, where problems with the field threatened to force the cancellation of next fall's high school football and soccer season.like tears in the seams


The field’s Astroturf, installed in the late 1990s, has developed dangerous splits in its seams as well as drainage problems, said Best.

Bauerle, which at Eastside High school, is the only field in the city that is approved to have high school athletics on it, Best said. The Astroturf was only meant to have a five-year lifespan, officials said. A patch job was done on the field two years ago, where pieces of Astroturf were molded over holes in the field, but that was supposed to be just a one-year solution and the work already has begun to come undone, Best said.

Moreover, experts have found that the use of Astroturf on athletic fields has contributed to injuries. The school district would like to replace the turf with synthetic grass, Best said.

The price-tag for installed synthetic grass on the football and soccer field is about $800,000 and another $200,000 would be needed for the running track that circles the field, Best said.

Best pointed out that Bauerle also is used for gym classes by Eastside academies and School No. 15.

that's awesome! I hope they do restore it. I pass by the area all the time but I never noticed it. Maybe I will check it out today.