Fenway 1912 by Glenn Stout Page A

portable machines on wheels that could be driven or hauled into place or machines supported by towers and operated by the use of draglines. These more modern excavation systems were probably used at Fenway Park only to bring the field to grade and dig foundations for the grandstand.
    By October 15, 1911, not only was the drainage system in place, but a layer of loam had been spread over the field. Now it was time for Jerome Kelley and his crew to take over. They overseeded the entire field, save the skinned portion of the infield, with a blend of grass seed designed for the New England climate: quick-growing fescues mixed with perennial rye and more resilient bluegrass. The rye sprouted quickly and held the soil, allowing the slower-growing fescues and bluegrass a chance to take root. That way, as soon as the ground thawed in the spring, grass would begin to grow and the whole field could be overseeded once again. After spreading the seed, Kelley's crew then rolled the field to set the seed, covered the bare earth with straw to prevent erosion, and applied water. In less than a week the first few tufts of green began to show.
    While work was being done on the playing field, work was also beginning on the grandstand, where there was no less pressure to get the job done before winter. The entire grandstand was designed to be built of reinforced concrete—concrete poured into forms and supported and reinforced with steel bars popularly known as rebar (reinforcing bar). Once temperatures dropped below freezing the mixing and pouring of concrete would become problematic. The pavilion, however, was less complex, consisting of simple steel-frame construction. But both the grandstand and the pavilion required the same basic foundation structures—load-bearing columns set into the ground on concrete-reinforced piers and extended footings. Although the size and spacing of the columns varied somewhat, owing to load, in general the columns were fourteen to twenty-four inches square and spaced eighteen to twenty feet apart throughout the entire footprint of both the grandstand and the pavilion. This meant that workers had to excavate and then construct at least 150 foundation piers.
    In the center-field bleachers, however, no such permanent foundations were built. The wooden structure with its myriad of columns and supports sat on wood piers set into the ground. Within a decade they would rot to such a degree that the city of Boston would deem the structure unsafe.
    The soil that would later prove problematic for drainage was nevertheless a godsend when the permanent concrete piers were constructed. Sample excavations revealed that the layer of hardpan was of sufficient depth to support the weight of the grandstand—up to four tons per square foot. After each pier was excavated carpenters created wooden formwork for that pier—essentially a box, flared out at the bottom—braced to withstand the weight of wet concrete without deforming. The interior was laced with rebar wired together, not unlike a series of nesting baskets, which added strength to the concrete.
    The concrete column extending upward from the pier was also created by wooden forms. Four steel bars, 1⅜ inches thick, extending from the footing, ran vertically through each column up above the surface grade, where subsequent columns could then be built vertically upward to the concrete deck slab. As the structure rose, each column was then connected and cross-braced to those around it by concrete-reinforced girders.
    Workers excavated and then poured the piers and columns first, beginning at the third-base end of the grandstand and systematically working toward the first-base side. They did not, however, build the grandstand up in layers, like a cake. Rather, as the concrete of the first piers and columns set and cured—a process that took, depending on the weather, between four and six days—forms were stripped, the piers and columns were backfilled, and the next level