Cedar Park

The contemporary view here is from the stands that face the west side of Pollock Field.   

Since the late 1920s, the “E”-shaped Croydon, an eight-story apartment building with two four-story north and south wings, has formed a backdrop for the athletic field at 48th and Spruce streets. Facing S. 49th Street between Spruce and Locust, the Croydon has a checkered past. By the turn of the Millennium, the once-thriving 127-unit edifice stood shuttered, crumbling, and in tax arrears. Known in counter-cultural circles as “Paradise City,” the abandoned building attracted hobo-like squatters, some brandishing guard dogs, from around the country. In recent years, Orens Brothers Real Estate, Inc., a Center City firm, has renovated the once-decaying complex and offers upgraded 1- and 2-bedroom rental units. 

An investment property acquired in West Philadelphia by Eli K. Price in the 19th century appears on this Bromley map, published in 1927. The map also shows the Chatham Apts., which would be replaced by the Croydon Apartments late in the decade. The site at 48th and Spruce St. served as the athletic field that Harry Passon rented for use as his personally branded baseball park, Passon Field, in the 1930s. 

Pollock Field today at 48th & Spruce St. The view is east toward the Emanuel Church on 47th Street.

Baseball entrepreneur Ed Bolden, shown here in 1924, when he controlled the Eastern Colored League, which would collapse in 1928. Bolden would go on to form the Philadelphia Stars. The Stars joined the new Negro National League and played its 1933 and 1934 seasons at Passon Field, before moving to Penmar Park in West Philadelphia’s Parkside neighborhood. 

In the 1930s, baseball entrepreneur Harry Passon, a Russian-born immigrant, profited by collecting fees from the Black professional and semi-professional baseball teams he scheduled to play on this field, which he rented, upgraded, and branded with his name. In the decades after the Second World War, the field was used by West Philadelphia High School. Located at 48th and Spruce streets, it is now called Pollock Field. The venue provides multiple opportunities for youth athletic participation. In this photo, the Tudor-Gothic towers of the building that was once home to West Philadelphia High School rise in the background along 48th Street.