This photo was taken by George Grantham Bain’s News Service of the front entry facade of Fenway Park in 1912.
It has in his distinctive printing “Fenway Park Ball Grounds Exterior” etched into the negative at the front top. The back looks like this:
It is stamped on back with a purple Bain News stamp, top line “Special Sporting Service” with the second line “George Grantham Bain”.
This stamp, for the Special Sporting Service, was used by Bain only from circa 1911 to 1914, certainly not 1918.
The back of the photo also has a “191?” date stamp.
Enlarging the date stamp, the “OCT 4” and the two “1”s in the year are easy to read. The “9” is an almost solid blob, but the mere location of it as the second digit in the year dictates it must be a “9”. The final digit is also a blob, but is indented in the middle left side of the blob, making it very likely it is a “2” or a “3” which would account for the missing ink in its middle left side as compared to the enclosed “9”.
We know Fenway was opened in 1912 so that is the earliest possible date, but what year was our photo actually taken? Key clues are the trees planted in front of the building, the lack of an adjoining building on the left, the edge of a billboard (seen fully in a following photo) at the left edge of our photo and a 1912 Fenway series of postcards.
This real photo postcard, taken from almost the exact same vantage point as our photo, yields critical information in determining the date of our photo.
First, it is postmarked January 18, 1913. Second notice the trees, they still have leaves on them. It is very doubtful a tree in Boston in January would have leaves still on it, so it is almost certain this postcard image was taken some time in 1912, likely in baseball season given the presence of fans on the street.
Now, compare the postcard image with the Bain image and focus on the single tree at the left edge of the building. The postcard tree is on the left below, the Bain tree on the right.
Notice the same peculiar kink of the tree branches in each image (The right two are our photo). The branches and even each individual leaf match up. Each photo also shows the tree in its planting support ring. The photos must have been taken at almost the same time prior to January 1913.
If you examine each of the other trees in the two photos you get the same matching results. The odds against those trees in the two images having the same leaves in the same locations months or years later are astronomical. They must have been taken within weeks of each other.
Also note in the two photos that the window awnings are all in the same relative open/closed positions. These two images were taken very near in time and the best evidence indicates 1912.
The postcard of Fenway’s façade shown above was issued as part of a series of postcards with images taken in September 1912. The three cards from that series are shown below:
#820 The Fenway Park façade (the one we just examined above)
# 821 Red Sox Fans September 23, 1912
#823 Red Sox game which is known to be the Yankees/Red Sox Sept 24-26, 1912 series (based on uniforms, the new 1st base box seats in front, and still the small pre WS pressbox).
The key point is the images for the three postcards were likely taken in the same time frame, late September 1912 (the crowd is actually labeled as such and the game has been identified as such). Bain did a famous panoramic of Fenway in late September 1912 which is in the Library of Congress Bain collection which is further explored below.
Our photo is also part of the Bain Collection of negatives at the Library of Congress. There it is listed to have been taken on September 28, 1914 (note vertical typed caption in the right margin for the pair of mounted photos below and the date listed for the bottom photo on the screenshot of the lower interior ballpark image from the LOC website). I believe that the 1914 attribution is mistaken, as it was actually September 28, 1912, as I will explain below.
First, the interior image of Fenway, the one shown at bottom of the dual image LOC card shown above, is absolutely from 1912. The rooftop pressbox visible just under the near roof eave is as it was prior to the 1912 World Series. As Bill Nowlin explains in Opening Fenway Park in Style p. 274, the pressbox was greatly expanded just prior to the World Series as shown below.
Second, the LOC has several more Bain images inside an empty Fenway listed as taken on September 28, 1912, showing the stadium in preparation for the large World Series crowds with the expanded bleachers along the baselines and just prior to the pressbox enlargement. All show an empty stadium as does our façade photo. I believe our image, and the interior shot on the dual LOC card, were likely taken on September 28, 1912 when the other Bain images were taken. The most likely, and simplest, explanation for the obvious year discrepancy is a scrivener’s error when a a “4” on the LOC card instead of “2” was inadvertently typed after “September 28, 191_”. In fact, all of the Bain Fenway shots in the LOC are from 1912 based on the stadium features and the wall advertising.
Also, another indication that our photo was not taken September 28, 1914 is a comparison of it with two known date Fenway photos, one taken in 1912 and one during the 1914 World Series.
The photo above shows the vacant lot to the left of Fenway with the Sterling Ale billboard. The far right edge of this billboard is just visible on the far left edge of our Bain photo.
The photos below show the construction of the Jeano building during the 1914 World Series.
The photo and closeup crop above show the construction of the Jeano building during the 1914 World Series. The game is actually in progress. The construction project has obviously been progressing for a while, the second floor is depicted in the photo. This building is not present in our Bain photo. Obviously, the lot was not vacant and the “Sterling Ale” billboard could not possibly have been there on September 28, 1914 when the LOC dates our photo to.
The stamp on back of our photo is very likely 1912. Bain took the other Fenway stadium study shots in the LOC Collection in September/October 1912 just prior to the World Series which started October 9th. It would make sense that our backstamp is actually Oct 4 1912, just prior to the World Series.
Considering all of the factors discussed herein, it is almost certain that our Bain photo was taken of Fenway Park in its inaugural 1912 season.
