Stumpf Field, once the home of professional baseball in Lancaster County and still used for recreational play, turns 80 years old this year.
But that’s as old as it will get.
Owner Jeff Sweigart last week listed the 1350 Fruitville Pike property for sale with an asking price of $5.0 million.
Sweigart, a long-time advocate for youth and adult baseball here, said the decision was prompted by several factors.
The field’s recreational use is declining; his children have no interest in owning the field; and he’s retiring from the company next door, Pennsy Supply.
“I think it’s the perfect time to say goodbye,” he said Tuesday.
The 11.4-acre property in Manheim Township is zoned I-2, an industrial designation that allows factories, offices, warehouses and other uses by right.
However, the township also has given the site an “urban transition” overlay that allows houses, apartments, stores, restaurants and other uses by right.
Both designations allow additional uses as special exceptions, subject to township Zoning Hearing Board approval.
“It’s a prime redevelopment spot at a major gateway into the city,” said Dan Berger Jr. He and his father, both with U.S. Commercial Realty, are the listing agents for the site.
Lyle Hosler, vice president of the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, had a similar observation:
“From an economic development point of view, it is a large property with frontage on a main entry way to the City of Lancaster, so we will be interested in learning more about options and opportunities at the site.”
The beginning
Construction of Stumpf Field began in 1938, according to LNP files. The field debuted as a place for minor-league baseball in 1940 when a team from Hazleton moved here and got renamed the Lancaster Red Roses.
In the two decades to follow, future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, Robin Roberts and Nellie Fox were among the hundreds of players to compete there.
The last season for the Red Roses was 1961. The field went through spells of idleness and renewal thereafter.
Sweigart bought the property in 2002, when he owned Pennsy predecessor McMinn’s Asphalt. It was a chance to not only gain control of neighboring land but to revive the field.
Sweigart flipped the field, moving home plate from the eastern edge of the property to the western edge. He also added lights, fencing and dugouts. The rebuilt field debuted as Stumpf Field at McMinn Park in 2004.
The Lancaster Adult Baseball League, formed to take advantage of the revitalized field, is its main user.
But Sweigart said its use is declining.
From a peak of 14 teams and 210 players in about 2008-2010, he expects eight teams and 120 players this season. Separately, a group of attorneys uses the original diamond for softball.
Local high schools and Millersville University have used the fields for baseball games in recent years too, but none will this season.
Sweigart said that he’d hold onto the field if he still owned McMinn’s. But he sold the company to Oldcastle Materials in 2007 and Oldcastle made the business part of its Pennsy Supply.
Sweigart has stayed at Pennsy Supply as an estimator.
But turns 65 on Feb. 16 and will retire at the end of February with 47 years of service — he started as a flagman the day after graduating from Hempfield High School.
The Manheim Township resident said his children — Amanda, a graduate student at Lancaster Bible College, and Chad, an attorney in Wilkes-Barre — have no interest in owning the field.
“It’s not like it’s a money maker,” said Sweigart.
Fees from the adult league’s teams fall well short of his costs, he said, which include field maintenance, baseballs, umpires, electricity and property taxes.
The property, which also fronts on Manheim Pike, contains three small buildings, he said. One is used for storage of lawn-care equipment. The other two are empty.
Sweigart is selling the land as Fruitville Pike is undergoing far-reaching change.
That includes the construction of the Belmont mixed use development and Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel a quarter-mile away.
Across Manheim Pike, Sweigart is selling the vacant former Lancaster Malleable site to a developer of a car dealership, as has been previously reported.