The Old Ballyard

Kindleberger Park, Parchment, Michigan. Parchment was a company town, built around the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment paper mill.

Back in the day, KVP fielded strong baseball nines in the local industrial league, and hosted games at this ballpark. Back then this was a fully developed stadium capable of holding several thousand spectators. Remnants of those glory days remain, if you look for them.

By the 60s, KVP had been absorbed by Sutherland Paper Company, who still fielded the area's strongest ball team. But only a handful of teams were still around, so the entire Kalamazoo City League schedule was played at Riverview (later Sutherland, now Stryker) Field, in Kalamazoo, and this park changed its focus.

Glad to see it's still in use, if somewhat diminished.

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My boss claims yesterday's Third Base photo was too abstract. So here's an entire ballpark.

And here's another view of the Kindleberger ball field, from another age...