The first South Side Park was the home of the short-lived Chicago Browns entry in the Union Association of 1884.

The venue was also called Union Base Ball Park and 39th Street Grounds in local newspapers.

The Chicago Tribune of June 17, 1883, p. 9, gives the location of the new park as "Thirty-ninth Street, between Michigan and Wabash Avenues."

One of the aerial bombs failed to explode in flight, and came down hard on a resident of 3800 South Michigan Avenue, killing her.

The last reference to it in local newspapers came in the winter of 1884–1885 when the Chicago National League club was shopping around for a new location after having been driven from their lakefront ballpark.

The Tribune for February 25, 1885, p. 6, reported that "the old Union grounds" at 39th and Wabash were looked at, but were considered too far from the business district to be suitable.

Although the club continued to call themselves "White Stockings", local papers frequently referred to the team as the "Pirates".

The Chicago Tribune, in an article on January 19, 1890, stated that the property was bounded by 33rd and 35th Streets to the north and south, and by Wentworth Avenue and the Rock Island Railroad to the east and west respectively.

However, another article exactly one month later stated that the grandstand was being built on the 33rd Street side of the block, to hold 4,000 patrons, and additional "bleaching boards" seating to accommodate another 3,000.

The 39th Street Grounds served as the playing field of the Chicago Wanderers cricket club during the 1893 World's Fair and then through 1899.

After Charles Comiskey built a wooden grandstand on the site in 1900, it became the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League.

Meanwhile, after some rebuilding, South Side Park became the home of the newly formed Negro league baseball team called the Chicago American Giants in 1911.

[1] Instead of rebuilding, the American Giants abandoned the site and would play their remaining seasons at Comiskey Park.