Phillies owners Al Reach and John Rogers built the new National League Park for $80,000 with a capacity of 12,500[3] to open for the 1887 season.

Philadelphia's Building Inspectors' office issued a permit to Joseph Bird on August 4, 1886, to construct a pavilion 130 × 105 feet, one story high, at the northeast corner of Fifteenth and Huntingdon Streets.

[4] The new ballpark was to have opened on April 4, 1887, for the preseason City Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, but inclement weather delayed final construction.

Philadelphia Mayor Edwin Henry Fitler attended along with the city's political and business leadership and many baseball leaders, including New York Giants owner John B.

To prevent fans from viewing the games over the right field wall along the now higher Broad Street, the Phillies constructed the 12-foot-high (3.7 m) fence before the 1894 season.

[10] On August 6, 1894, the grandstand and bleachers of the original stadium were destroyed in a fire, inflicting $80,000 in damages (equal to $2,817,231 today), which was covered fully by insurance.

[11] While the Phillies were playing a short road trip and staging six home games at the University of Pennsylvania Grounds at 37th and Spruce, a building crew worked around the clock erecting temporary bleachers.

[15] During the August 8, 1903 game against Boston with 10,078 in the stands, an altercation between two drunken men and two teenage girls on 15th Street caught the attention of bleacher fans down the left field line.

[3] Many of the fans ran to the top of the wooden seating area, and the added stress on that section of the bleachers caused it to collapse into the street, killing 12 and injuring 232.

Following the 1903 disaster, Phillies owner James Potter and the other club officers hosted National League president Harry Pulliam and the city's baseball writers for a luncheon, and then made an official tour of the ballpark to show off the reconstructed and reinforced left field bleachers.

[20] The Phillies erected field-level seats extending from the left field stands around to the centerfield club house before the 1906 season, which increased capacity by 3,000 spectators.

[21] Prior to the 1907 season, a new corrugated roof was placed over half of the grandstand, and the visiting team clubhouse was refurbished with new showers and other amenities.

Prior to the 1908 season, the Phillies' painted the stonework green to match the wood fences and reduce the glare; moved the score board to the right field foul line; and for the first time built covered dugouts described as "small pavilion-like sheds erected over the players' bench, completely shutting the bench out from view of the people in the grandstand.

[24] The park itself was painted green which the Philadelphia Inquirer welcomed as an improvement "instead of the old glaring assortment of rainbow colors which predominated in the past.

This factor gave the right fielder more room to catch foul fly balls, theoretically mitigating the close proximity of the outfield wall to some extent.

During a game on May 14, 1927, parts of two sections of the lower deck extension along the right-field line collapsed due to rotted shoring timbers, again triggered by an oversize gathering of people, who were seeking shelter from the rain.

When the Phillies departed in 1938, the ballpark did not offer motor vehicle parking, and would never feature a separate press box nor public address system.

The 1915 World Series was the first attended by a sitting US president, Woodrow Wilson,[33] and the last to be played in a venue whose structure predated the establishment of the post-season interleague championship.

For a number of years, a huge advertising sign on the right field wall read "The Phillies Use Lifebuoy", a popular brand of soap.

At the ballpark on September 17, 1900, in game 1 of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds, the Phillies were discovered to have been stealing opponents' signs using hidden wires and an electronic device.

Phillies' backup catcher Morgan Murphy sat in the team's centerfield clubhouse window which faced home plate.

[37] He retired, at 40, after a poor start, confident of receiving a managerial offer, but one never came from any franchise, only a brief stint as a 1st base coach three years later for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Baker died in 1930 in the early days of the Depression, and the Phillies new ownership were not in a position to make badly needed renovations.

The ballpark was abandoned during the middle of the 1938 season, as the Phillies chose to move five blocks west on Lehigh Avenue to rent the newer and more spacious Shibe Park from the Athletics rather than remain at the Baker Bowl.

In addition to Phillies baseball and Philadelphia Eagles football, the ballpark served the city as a multipurpose playing field available to other teams.

4,000 fans saw the National League New York Giants defeat the American Association St. Louis Browns including veteran journalist Henry Chadwick, and popular entertainers DeWolf Hopper and Digby Bell.

In 1921, the Chicago American Giants (champions of the Negro National League) played a series against the team considered the best of the East in the Hilldale Club.

[50] It was during a 1929 exhibition with a Negro league team that Babe Ruth hit two home runs that landed about halfway into the rail yards across the street in right.

As early as 1928, the ballpark's site was put forth by the Greater Kensington Business Men's Association as an advantageous location for the city's proposed convention center.

After the Phillies moved to Shibe Park, its new owners renamed the lot Philadelphia Gardens and experimented with various types of events.