Everton originally played on an open pitch in the south-east corner of the newly laid out Stanley Park (on a site where rival Liverpool FC considered building a stadium over a century later).

The first official match following the renaming of the club from St. Domingo's to Everton was at Stanley Park, staged on 20 December 1879; St. Peter's was the opposition, and admission was free.

[7] In the 1890s, a dispute about how the club was to be owned and run emerged with John Houlding, Anfield's majority owner and Everton's Chairman, at the forefront.

fully expecting Houlding to dismiss Everton from their Anfield home, he (George Mahon) acquired land on a patch off Stanley Park called 'Mere Green Field' and also made sure that the Club kept their name.

Mahon responded "I have one in my pocket" revealing an option to lease Mere Green field, in Walton, Lancashire, the site of the current Goodison Park.

no single picture could take in the entire scene the ground presents, it is so magnificently large, for it rivals the greater American baseball pitches.

The spectators are divided from the playing piece by a neat, low hoarding, and the touch line is far enough from it to prevent those accidents which were predicted at Anfield Road, but never happened...

[27] The club minutes from the time show that Hartley was unhappy with certain aspects of the stand and the poor sightlines meant that the goal line had to be moved seven metres north, towards Gwladys Street.

In September that year Ernest Edwards, the Liverpool Echo journalist who christened the terrace at Anfield the "Spion Kop", wrote of the newly built stand, "The building as one looks at it, suggests the side of Mauretania at once.

The idea was inspired by a visit to Pittodrie to play a friendly against Aberdeen, where such dugouts had been constructed at the behest of the Dons' trainer Donald Colman.

A third bomb outside the practice ground had demolished the surrounding hoarding and had badly damaged glass in the Goodison Ave and Walton Lane property.

[22] The first undersoil heating system in English football was installed at Goodison Park in 1958,[32] with 20 miles (30 km) of electric wire laid beneath the playing surface at a cost of £16,000.

Journalist Geoffrey Green of The Times wrote "Goodison Park has always been a handsome fashionable stage for football, a living thing full of atmospherics-like a theatre.

[44] In addition, 200 limited edition medals were created[45] and Liverpool based author and journalist Ken Rogers wrote a book One Hundred Years of Goodison Glory to commemorate the occasion.

The fences around the perimeter of the ground fronting the terracing (which were to prevent fans, notably hooligans, running onto the pitch) were removed immediately post Hillsborough, in time for the rearranged league fixture with Liverpool.

[55] Imaginative spectators would climb the church and watch a football game from the rooftop; however, they have now been deterred from doing so with the installation of security measures such as barbed wire and anti-climb paint.

In addition, the introduction of the 'all-seater' ruling following the Taylor Report has meant that spectators no longer resort to climbing nearby buildings for a glimpse of the event as a seat is guaranteed with a purchased ticket.

[68] The then Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley stated in November 2009 that a redevelopment of Goodison Park was his favoured option, and that relocation of the homes, infrastructure and businesses in streets adjoining the ground is "not a major hurdle".

[69] Everton was considering all options, including relocation, redevelopment of the current ground, or a groundshare with Liverpool F.C., in a new, purpose-built stadium in Stanley Park, stressing that finance was the main factor affecting decision-making.

[72] This proposal would place both football clubs on a rapid-transit Merseyrail line circling the city giving high throughput, fast transport access.

[74] In August 2010, Everton announced plans to build a new development situated between the Park End stand and Walton Lane; the site is currently used for a hospitality marquee.

In February 2021, Liverpool City Council voted in favour of Everton's £82m plan to redevelop Goodison Park into a mixed-use scheme featuring 173 homes and 51,000sq ft of offices.

[82] Although Everton has now shifted towards a new stadium away from Goodison Park it remained a suggestion that the station could be re-opened should the freight only Canada Dock Branch line once again run passenger trains.

Until the expansion of Old Trafford in 1996 Goodison Park held the record Sunday attendance on a Football League ground (53,509 v West Bromwich Albion, FA Cup, 1974).

[94] In 1949, Goodison Park became the site of England's first ever defeat on English soil by a non-Home Nations country, namely the Republic of Ireland.

The original schedule of the 1966 World Cup meant that if England won their group and then reached the Semi final, the match would be held at Goodison Park.

[97] Both Northern Ireland goalscorers Dave Clements (vs. England) and Bryan Hamilton (vs. Wales)[110] went on to play for Goodison Park's club side Everton later on in their careers.

On 11 July 1913 Goodison Park became the first English football ground to be visited by a reigning monarch when King George V and Queen Mary attended.

[149] In addition, a baseball game between two Army Air Force nines watched by over 8,000 spectators raised over $3,000 for British Red Cross and St. John's Ambulance fund.

[155] The stadium hosted the first outdoor boxing event in Liverpool since 1949 when Bellew defeated Ilunga Makabu on 29 May 2016 to claim the vacant WBC Cruiserweight title.