Olympic Stadium and Recreational Field - Hoquiam, Washington - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

OLYMPIC STADIUM AND RECREATIONAL FIELD, entrance 28th and Cherry Sts., opened Thanksgiving Day 1939, is the leading athletic field in Grays Harbor district. The city purchased the site in 1929, but no improvements were made until 1938, when construction began under the WPA, with the Hoquiam Park Board furnishing the materials.

The grandstand has a seating capacity of 10,000, and the grounds are lighted for night games. There are fields for baseball, football, and softball, and two tennis courts. Plans call for completion of an archery range, horseshoe courts, a bowling green, children's playfield and picnic grounds. -Washington: A Guide to the Evergreen State, 1941

Olympic Stadium remains in use today as a multi-purpose sports field. The structure is an old-growth fir heavy-timber frame with concrete restroom and concession facilities. In addition to the main field, it includes two smaller Little League ballfields that have their own smaller grandstands. Originally built to hold 10,000 people, more recent reconfiguration efforts make the capacity up to 7,500 people. The property was originally purchased by the City of Hoquiam in 1929. In 1938, construction of the grandstand was began as a Works Progress Administration project at a cost of $123,664. The stadium opened on Thanksgiving day for the big Hoquiam vs. Aberdeen high school football rivalry game. The stadium remains in use today for local high school sports and Little League baseball events. According to the National Historic Register nomination form it is thought to be the largest and best-preserved wooden grandstand in the United States. The facility was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

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