[1] Children and organized amateur teams had played baseball since at least 1880 in the area east of the Valley Cemetery, which was known as "the Plains."

[citation needed] In June 1912, Amoskeag officials began negotiations with Freeman to take control of the park for use by the city manufacturers' baseball league.

A single, covered grandstand was built, gently curved to provide for watching either baseball or football.

[2]: 19–26  Recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were being blamed for the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts, which resulted in much violence and the involvement of the radical Industrial Workers of the World union.

Amoskeag, which was not unionized, wanted no such trouble, particularly in light of the fact that IWW operatives were seen in Manchester during the Lawrence strike.

Textile Field made its debut over Memorial Day weekend of 1913, but the grandstand was not entirely completed until late July.

[2]: 158  The score and the "vaudeville" act put on by the Athletics in the final inning — in which they changed positions and performed "trick" plays — made Amoskeag reconsider its commitment.

[2]: 188–198  In September 1923, Amoskeag brought in the National League's Brooklyn Robins (now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers) to play against the company team.

The stadium was renovated extensively in preparation for the inaugural 2004 baseball season of the Eastern League's New Hampshire Fisher Cats (the class AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays), acquiring an aluminum floor and molded plastic chairs, new clubhouses adjacent to the grandstand, and dugouts in what was formerly the dirt track.

Over the years, Gill Stadium has served as the home field for city high-school and American Legion ball clubs.

Gill Stadium continues to host numerous amateur baseball teams, and Manchester's annual Thanksgiving football tournament, the Turkey Bowl, which pits two of the four city schools against each other each year based on their performance during the just-completed season.

[1] Additional parking may be available just north at the adjacent John F. Kennedy Memorial Coliseum, or on side streets.