Last updated: February 19, 2025
Place
Normandale Field
1953 image of Normandale Field from bleachers [Portland City Archives A2005-005.296.2]
Quick Facts
Location:
NE 57th Avenue and NE Hassalo Street
Significance:
Entertainment/Recreation, Social History, LGB History, Women’s History
Designation:
Listed in the National Register – Reference Number 100010362
MANAGED BY:
Normandale Field, a softball-specific ballfield in Portland, Oregon, was created in 1945, improved in 1947 and completed in 1948. The field was “hailed in the press as the most modern softball field in the country.”
The rise of women’s softball teams was a 1930s, depression-era phenomenon that became more popular than ever during the 1940s. The rise in the national popularity of baseball and softball towards the end of the 1930s was bolstered by the New Deal policies of President Roosevelt beginning in 1936, which actively promoted recreational facilities and constructed more than 3000 athletic fields under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Many of these fields were lighted and were constructed to work for baseball or softball. Normandale was one such WPA project.
However, the Erv Lind Florists women’s softball team predated the field, starting out in Portland as the Lind & Pomeroy Florists in 1937. Their sponsor and coach, Erwin “Erv” Lind and his business partner Seley Pomeroy began sponsoring city league sports teams. These teams initially included a bowling team, a soccer team, a men’s softball team, and a basketball team. By 1942 the local press was starting to notice the Lind & Pomeroy women’s team and reporting that large numbers of fans were beginning to follow the team. In the early 1940s the team was playing games at Buckman field, Westmoreland, and a few other scattered municipal fields. But soon they were reaching a much higher level of competition and were simply outgrowing many of Portland’s local playing fields. They would begin to use the Normandale Field after its completion in 1948.
From 1948 until the team disbanded in 1964, quite a few extremely talented women softball players considered the field their home field. The Florists team was by no means a lesbian team across the decades, but there were players who identified as lesbian or bisexual, often much later in life. It is important to note that many players on the Florists team were quite young. As a result, some of them at the time may not have fully understood or accepted their own sexuality or whether they were or were not attracted to women. Chris Mazzuca, who played on the Florists team from the late 1950s into the early 1960s and later identified as LGB, noted that there were many lesbians on the Florists team, but “as a 19-year-old, or 18-year-old… I was mostly clueless.”
The 1950s caricature of the mannish lesbian athlete affected all of the players, reminding them to publicly maintain a heterosexual, feminine identity, “or risk falling into a despised category.” Because women who were publicly identified as lesbian (or any LGB identity) could be very much damaged by the stigma it is not surprising that a code of silence took hold within women’s sports especially in the era before 1970. The team stuck together and did not disclose anyone’s sexual orientation. Nevertheless, Normandale Field’s importance to LGB women in Portland from 1948 to the mid-1960s was paramount. The ballpark was a safe place to find and meet similar women. It was not only a place of camaraderie and community for the players and fans, but a place to belong even if you did not play or had only passing interest in the game. The popularity of the team provided a low-risk crowd environment for women who could simply blend in if they chose to, rather than be seen going into a known gay or lesbian establishment.
For people who lived in Portland during this time and who identified as LGB, women’s softball games at the field became an event and place to socialize with other queer women in Portland. The field was the only consistent LGB-friendly venue outside of residences and a few bars and was often the first point of contact with locally established lesbians for women who were new to Portland. The close community that these women created together was based around playing, and watching, softball games, which for local fans was an activity that mostly took place at Normandale, the Florists’ home field. As Fern Wilgus put it, “softball and Normandale Field was a safe zone, a safe zone people like me could go to.”
The field is run by the City of Portland as a recreational ballfield today and there have been several announcements for a new women's softball league launching.
The rise of women’s softball teams was a 1930s, depression-era phenomenon that became more popular than ever during the 1940s. The rise in the national popularity of baseball and softball towards the end of the 1930s was bolstered by the New Deal policies of President Roosevelt beginning in 1936, which actively promoted recreational facilities and constructed more than 3000 athletic fields under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Many of these fields were lighted and were constructed to work for baseball or softball. Normandale was one such WPA project.
However, the Erv Lind Florists women’s softball team predated the field, starting out in Portland as the Lind & Pomeroy Florists in 1937. Their sponsor and coach, Erwin “Erv” Lind and his business partner Seley Pomeroy began sponsoring city league sports teams. These teams initially included a bowling team, a soccer team, a men’s softball team, and a basketball team. By 1942 the local press was starting to notice the Lind & Pomeroy women’s team and reporting that large numbers of fans were beginning to follow the team. In the early 1940s the team was playing games at Buckman field, Westmoreland, and a few other scattered municipal fields. But soon they were reaching a much higher level of competition and were simply outgrowing many of Portland’s local playing fields. They would begin to use the Normandale Field after its completion in 1948.
From 1948 until the team disbanded in 1964, quite a few extremely talented women softball players considered the field their home field. The Florists team was by no means a lesbian team across the decades, but there were players who identified as lesbian or bisexual, often much later in life. It is important to note that many players on the Florists team were quite young. As a result, some of them at the time may not have fully understood or accepted their own sexuality or whether they were or were not attracted to women. Chris Mazzuca, who played on the Florists team from the late 1950s into the early 1960s and later identified as LGB, noted that there were many lesbians on the Florists team, but “as a 19-year-old, or 18-year-old… I was mostly clueless.”
The 1950s caricature of the mannish lesbian athlete affected all of the players, reminding them to publicly maintain a heterosexual, feminine identity, “or risk falling into a despised category.” Because women who were publicly identified as lesbian (or any LGB identity) could be very much damaged by the stigma it is not surprising that a code of silence took hold within women’s sports especially in the era before 1970. The team stuck together and did not disclose anyone’s sexual orientation. Nevertheless, Normandale Field’s importance to LGB women in Portland from 1948 to the mid-1960s was paramount. The ballpark was a safe place to find and meet similar women. It was not only a place of camaraderie and community for the players and fans, but a place to belong even if you did not play or had only passing interest in the game. The popularity of the team provided a low-risk crowd environment for women who could simply blend in if they chose to, rather than be seen going into a known gay or lesbian establishment.
For people who lived in Portland during this time and who identified as LGB, women’s softball games at the field became an event and place to socialize with other queer women in Portland. The field was the only consistent LGB-friendly venue outside of residences and a few bars and was often the first point of contact with locally established lesbians for women who were new to Portland. The close community that these women created together was based around playing, and watching, softball games, which for local fans was an activity that mostly took place at Normandale, the Florists’ home field. As Fern Wilgus put it, “softball and Normandale Field was a safe zone, a safe zone people like me could go to.”
The field is run by the City of Portland as a recreational ballfield today and there have been several announcements for a new women's softball league launching.