New Beaver Field
New Beaver Field was a stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. It served as the third home of the Penn State University Nittany Lions football team, hosting the team until they moved in 1960 to Beaver Stadium. It was built to replace the original Beaver Field (1892–1908), retroactively called Old Beaver Field, which had a capacity of 500 and stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories. Prior to this, the team played on Old Main Lawn, a grassy area outside the main classroom building of the time.
| Full name | New Beaver Field |
|---|---|
| Location | University Park, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°47′48″N 77°52′11″W |
| Owner | Penn State University |
| Operator | Penn State University |
| Capacity | 30,000 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1907 |
| Opened | 1909 Capacity 1,200 |
| Expanded | 1915 Capacity 6,000 1920 Capacity 16,000 (expandable to 20,000) 1924 Press box added 1934 Capacity 14,700 1949 Capacity 27,720 |
| Closed | 1959 |
| Construction cost | $23,000 (equivalent to $749,119 in 2022) |
| Tenants | |
| Penn State football (1909–1959) Penn State men's soccer (1911–1959) Penn State baseball Penn State men's lacrosse Penn State track and field | |
New Beaver Field was built to the northeast of Rec Hall on the present sites of the Nittany Lion Inn and the Nittany Parking Deck and held 30,000 people at its peak. In addition to football, the stadium had a track as well as baseball, lacrosse, and soccer fields. In 1959, the entire structure was disassembled and moved to the northeast corner of campus, where it was reassembled, expanded, and dubbed Beaver Stadium. Portions of the original 1909 design are still in use today. The stadium is named after James A. Beaver, who was a governor of Pennsylvania and a member of the school's board of trustees.