AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: The above video depicts a separate celebration ceremony from 2017 in which Downs Field received a historical marker plaque.
Downs Field, the historic century-old home of Black sports teams, will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to celebrate the restoration of its grandstand.
The grandstand restoration is part of a decade-long refurbishment project from the Historic Preservation Fund and the Economic Development Department's Heritage Tourism Division. Project leaders worked to recreate the grandstands' original look while replacing the roof and improving supports and framing.
The ribbon-cutting will be at Downs Field this Friday at 11:30 a.m.
Samuel Huston College baseball and Austin's first Negro Baseball League team, the Austin Black Senators, first used the Downs Field site in the 1920s. It wasn't until 1954 that the site was officially established as Downs Field after the late Samuel Huston president Karl Downs. Currently, Downs Field is home to the Huston-Tillotson Rams.
In 2015, the Texas Historical Commission certified the Downs Field site as a Texas Historical Landmark, and in 2017, the field received a historical marker plaque.
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