Before Riverfront Stadium, before Crosley Field, there was the Palace of the Fans.
A tad bit ostentatious for a ball field, perhaps, but the Cincinnati Reds’ grandstand was so memorable that it draws attention more than a century after it was reduced to rubble.
No one had ever seen anything quite like it at a ballpark. Reds historians Greg Rhodes and John Erardi called the Palace of the Fans “the most distinctive grandstand ever built at a major league baseball park.”
It was bold, impressive and ornate. In an era where simple wooden stands were just fine for the couple thousand fans who attended a ballgame, the Palace of the Fans was majestic.