Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Beyond Cycledrome

Do you know who won the 1928 NFL championship? It was the Providence Steam Roller, of course. While researching old baseball stuff, I came across a reference to the Roller's stadium, the Cycledrome. It was a stadium with an angled bike track around it, on the Providence/Pawtucket line off of North Main St. This is an area I'm in quite a bit--examples: the Met Cafe (where I saw a Bob Mould solo show and a Henry Rollins spoken-word show) and the place where my girlfriend runs a craft show are on this street, just on the Pawtucket side of the border. Anyway, I wanted to figure out the exact location of the Cycledrome. Here's a map of the area:

We've got I-95 on the left, and North Main (rte. 1) on the right. See that parking lot on the left? That's supposedly where a drive-in theater sat until the 70s. This was advertised as being on the old Cycledrome site (and right on the town line). So if that's all true, that's pretty much the spot where the stadium was. I also figured it might have extended north to that grassy area, Morley Field. I took rather unexciting pictures of both the lot...

(that's facing north--95 is to my left through the woods)...and the ballfield...

(looking west toward 95.)

Supposedly there is or was a plaque in the lot, but I didn't see it. It's kind of a rough location--if you miss the sign on North Main, you'd never notice the road that goes down a hill to the plaza, which is completely out of view. That might explain why these giant retail spaces are empty. But it would have been a sweet spot to see an NFL game. If anybody knows more about the exact location or the plaque, add it to comments. Thanks.

Comments:
Weird. I've never heard of them, but I am aware that the former Hockey (AHL) and Basketball (NBA) teams based in Providence were also on North Main: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island_Auditorium. The Hockey was the Providence Reds and (apparently) the NBA team was also the Steamrollers.
 
Hi!
By using your website, a website about the E.M. Loew's Drive-In Theater and asking around, that parking lot IS where the Cyclodrome was!
Hope all is well.
xoxo
The Clarences
www.theclarences
 
Awesome, Clarences. There was a recent article in Providence Journal, too. Check that out.
 

Post a Comment

If you're "anonymous," please leave a name, even if it's a fake one, for differentiation purposes.

If you're having trouble commenting, try signing in to whatever account you're using first, then come back here once you're signed in.



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

My Photo
Name:
Location: Rhode Island, United States