Building a home in Brooklyn

The undeveloped lot set aside for Ebbets Field in 1912

Charles Ebbets, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers – then known as the Superbas – announces 114 years ago today his purchase of 4.5 acres in the borough's Pigtown section.

The purpose: Ebbets plans to build a 23,000-seat, brick-and-steel stadium for his team, which has been playing in 18,000-seat Washington Park that opens only 14 years earlier in 1898.

Ebbets Field shortly after its opening in 1913

Ebbets’ new stadium takes just 15 months to build at a cost of $750,000, which in today’s dollars comes to $24.6 million.

The Dodgers’ owner names the place after himself and Ebbets Field becomes the Dodgers’ home from 1913 until they move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

Still not a popular move today among the more seasoned citizens in Brooklyn.

“In Brooklyn, it was as though you were in your own little bubble,” says longtime Dodgers pitcher and Hall of Famer Don Drysdale.

“You were all part of one big, but very close family,” Drysdale says, “and the Dodgers were the main topic of everybody’s conversations … you could sense the affection people had for you. I don’t know that such a thing exists anymore.”

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