Leon Day Park

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Leon Day Park is named for Leon Day an outstanding player in the Negro Leagues who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A resident of southwest Baltimore, Day joined the Baltimore Black Sox in 1934 when African Americans could not play in the Major or Minor Leagues. He went on to excel as a second baseman and pitcher for several teams and returned to Baltimore in the 1940s as a member of the Elite Giants. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995 just a few days before he died. Leon Day played every position in the field but catch, and he played them all magnificently.

From picnic and playground facilities to sports fields and courts, Leon Day Park serves as a gathering place for people of all ages in the Rosemont-Franklintown Road neighborhood. Formerly called Claverton, the area contained mills and slaughterhouses before becoming residential in the 1920s and 1930s. The community became known as Rosemont in the 1960s when it opposed plans to demolish 790 homes to make way for the I-70 highway.