The Grays had previously been playing their home games on the athletic field of Williamsport High School. This facility proved to be much too small. A larger and more permanent stadium was needed. A group of civic leaders and baseball boosters lead the drive to construct a new stadium for the Grays on the western side of Williamsport on the banks of Lycoming Creek. An agreement between the Grays and the city was reached in July, 1925 to build what was then known as Memorial Field, which was named for the municipal park in which it is located. J. Walton Bowman headed an 11-member holding company that financed and managed the construction of the ballpark at a cost of $75,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Ground was broken in the fall of 1925 and the stadium opened in time for the beginning of the 1926 New York–Pennsylvania League season.