Holman Stadium (Nashua)

Coordinates: 42°46′8.71″N 71°28′23.50″W / 42.7690861°N 71.473194°W / 42.7690861; -71.473194

Holman Stadium is a baseball stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire. It was constructed in 1937, as a multi-purpose stadium, by the City of Nashua. The official seating capacity is 4,375 people. Holman is currently the home of the Nashua Silver Knights of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The Silver Knights are operated by the Lowell Spinners of the New York – Penn League (Single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox)

The stadium is named for Charles Frank Holman, who contributed $55,000 for the project. Holman Stadium, which also was funded by money made available by the federal government during the Great Depression, was dedicated to the youth and people of Nashua in memory of Holman's parents. Philip S. Avery, a Nashua native, was chosen as the architect. Holman Stadium was upgraded in 2002, from a plain seating bowl to a stadium with luxury boxes and a press box on top of the grandstand.

Owned by the city, it became home to the Nashua Pride, a baseball team in the independent Atlantic League, in 1998. In 2006, the Pride switched to the Can-Am League, and in 2008 the team was sold and renamed the American Defenders of New Hampshire. Designer/ Contractor team Brian and Melissa Zagorites of ZMasterBuilders donated a $45,000. makeover to the skyboxes for the city of Nashua during the American Defenders season. The Defenders played a partial season in the stadium in 2009, then moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 2010 to become the Pittsfield Colonials.

Another non-affiliated team, the Nashua Hawks of the North Atlantic League, played at Holman Stadium earlier in the 1990s; its tenure at Holman Stadium ended with mid-season eviction for nonpayment of rent. This fate also befell the Defenders, as Nashua evicted them for the same reason.

Prior to that, several major league teams had farm teams based in the stadium, including the California Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Holman hosted what is considered the first integrated U.S. baseball team in the modern era, when Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe played for the then-Nashua Dodgers in 1946. While home to the Nashua Pirates in 1985, Holman Stadium hosted the Eastern League All-Star Game.

The stadium has hosted concerts by many famous artists, including Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, and Whitney Houston, among others.