Downs Field Grandstands
Downs Field Grandstands After Restoration
The Honor Award for the restoration of the Downs Field Grandstands in Austin, Texas was presented to Kim McKnight and Ellen Colfax on behalf of the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department at Preservation Texas’s Central Texas Regional Preservation Summit in San Marcos on September 21, 2023. “Historic Resources in City Parks'' was included on Preservation Texas’s Most Endangered Places List in 2015 as a statewide endangered theme.
Presented every other year, Preservation Texas Honor Awards recognize outstanding efforts to restore, preserve, rehabilitate or reconstruct historic places that have been individually included on Preservation Texas's Most Endangered Places list or relate to a previous statewide thematic endangered listing. This year’s Honor Awards celebrate the remarkable efforts made by individuals, organizations, and communities to rehabilitate once imperiled historic places, breathing new life into cherished structures while honoring their historical significance and architectural integrity.
From Left to Right: Kate Johnson, Board of Directors, Preservation Texas; Kim McKnight, City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department; Ellen Colfax, City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department; Samantha Hunick, Central Texas Program Officer, Preservation Texas
Downs Field was first built at 12th and Springdale Streets as an enclosed, lighted field with grandstand seating for 600 in 1947. In 1954, the grandstands and amenities were moved to its present location at 12th and Alexander Streets, retaining the name Downs Field. The field was named in honor of Reverend Karl Downs, former president of Samuel Huston College, a historically Black college located in East Austin.
The site was first used in the 1920s by Samuel Huston College baseball and the Austin Black Senators, the first Negro Baseball League team in Austin. Baseball greats associated with the field include Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Smokey Joe Williams and Buck O’Neil. Later, the site hosted the original L.C. Anderson’s Yellowjackets football team, which won the state championship in 1942. Today, Downs Field is the home field of the Huston-Tillotson Rams.
Downs Field Grandstands Before Restoration
In 2022, the historic Downs Field grandstands were rehabilitated by the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, made possible through the city’s Historic Preservation Fund. Structural upgrades were made to the roof framing while replicating the architectural form and materials of the original. Additional scope included replacing the wood shade screens at the back of the bleacher seating, lead-based paint abatement and repainting. This project follows a multi-year effort to renovate and enhance the field for generations of baseball fans to come, and is a great example of a policy shift to protect and steward the city’s heritage.
Downs Field Grandstands Before Restoration
Downs Field Grandstands After Restoration
Project Contractor: Brown and Root Industrial Services
