Hippach Field’s centennial year to be celebrated

FARMINGTON – Plans are in the works to celebrate Hippach Field’s centennial year with an event to be held on June 18.

On Tuesday, selectmen unanimously approved spending up to $1,000 from the town’s special projects account towards supporting the event.

The Dirigo Vintage Base Ball Club, a nonprofit living history organization which tours the state playing by the old time rules and wearing authentic looking mid-19th century uniforms, is scheduled to play at Hippach Field at 7 p.m.

Local baseball aficionado Roger Spear,  is helping with the plans for the event, along with historian Paul Mills and Matt Foster, the Recreation Department’s director.

Town Manager Richard Davis said among the plans will be free hot dogs and boxes of Cracker Jack, a little history about the park, possible unveilings, members of the Hippach family in attendance, and the old-time baseball game to be played under the lights.

“They want to make it a big event and are hoping to do it through donations,” Davis told selectmen. The authorization of up to $1,000 was asked for in case of an unexpected expenditure cropping up, he added.

It was 100 years ago when the athletic fields were named for Howard Hippach, a talented athlete and Abbott School student, who was killed in an automobile accident near his family’s home in Chicago. The Abbott School for boys (1844-1918) was once located next to the fields before the property was purchased by the Farmington Normal School, now the University of Maine at Farmington.

Hippach’s family donated money to the Abbott School for the purchase of the field next to the school to hold athletic events. Early on the field included a track, field house and a wooden and brick fence that includes two sculptural relief panels depicting baseball and football players bordering Main Street.

The only remnant  left of Abbott School is Abbott Park, which sits between UMF’s Roberts Learning Center and Hippach Field. The well-used park is a centerpiece of Farmington that features a regulation-size baseball field, a little league baseball field, tennis courts, a playground, picnic area and wading pool.