Important Places and Their Public Faces:
Understanding Fenway Park as a Public Symbol
Written by: Michael Ian Borer
According to the article written by Michael Ian Borer, Fenway Park is short on comfort but long on character. So, what makes this park so popular, a public symbol and one of those places you should visit in your lifetime? The answer is history and the people of Boston. Fenway was built in 1912 during the golden age of baseball parks. Other parks built during this era were Philadelphia’s Shibe Park (1909), Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field (1909), Chicago’s Cominsky Park (1910) and Wrigley Field (1914). Of these parks, only Wrigley Field and Fenway Park still standing. The fact that such an old and uncomfortable park still exists with such fan devotion and fan-based historic preservationists says something about the strength of Fenway’s magnetism.
So how a place becomes a public symbol? This happens when people give them meaning and value. Fenway has become a public symbol because people, especially in Boston, elected the park to be so. Fenway has shared its history with Bostonians for almost 100 years. It is an old park which does not offer much for amenities such as a Hard Rock Café like the new Yankee stadium or a large seating capacity. What Fenway has to offer are small seats, many with obstructed view and limited seating at about 39,000 capacity. Why people keep coming back, seating in cramped quarters, buying expensive food and even more expensive tickets? They feel a cultural connection with the place and you cannot put a price on nostalgia. Generations of Red Sox faithful has passed down their season tickets through generations. They will take to the streets on game day and stop traffic sending shock waves through the city announcing that is time to play ball.
Fenway Park is a living artifact of an era when Americans were conscious of losing and eventually trying to preserve a piece of their past. Before stadiums, there were ballparks that provided city folks with simple, beautiful and maintained green fields. Fenway is painted all green especially the massive wall out on left field appropriately called the green monster. This park remains one of the places that have historical, cultural and emotional value to a large number of people especially in Red Sox Nation.
Reference:
Borer, M. (2006) Important Places and Their Public Faces: Understanding Fenway Park as a Public Symbol. The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 39, Issue: 2, Date: April 2006, pp. 205-224. Retrieved from Franklin University Library Database.
