Shibe Park - Last Years

Last Years

In March 1971, Louis Graboyes and S. Solis Tollin agreed in principal to buy the Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium property from Jerry Wolman, who had purchased it in 1964 for $757,500 and was no longer able to meet the mortgage on it. The sale, however, was not completed and some sources say that Wolman, who sold the Eagles to Leonard Tose in 1969, eventually sold the ballpark to the city of Philadelphia for the token price of 50 cents.

On August 20, 1971, the Connie Mack statue was re-dedicated at Veterans Stadium. That same day, while an evangelical revival group was setting up its tent, two stepbrothers, aged nine and twelve, sneaked into the park and started a small fire that grew into a five-alarmer, burning through much of the original upper deck, collapsing the roof and leaving twisted steel supports visible from the streets; ironically, the collapse of the overbloated roof restored much of the balanced grandeur of the original design. The park remained that way for four years, slowly deteriorating and becoming increasingly hazardous. Squatters took up revolving residence, and trash and debris accumulated; small trees took root and the manicured emerald turf became unruly knee-high stalks. In October 1975, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Ned Hirsh ordered the stadium razed. The corner tower and its domed cupola, Connie Mack's original office, whose design had been compared to a church, was the last segment of the ballpark demolished, on July 13, 1976.

In 1991, Deliverance Evangelistic Church, an independent Pentecostal congregation, constructed a church building on the site.