Hyde Park was the brainchild of Charles B. Hyde, the owner of a paper company at the corner of Hyde Park Boulevard (then known as Sugar Street) and Pine Avenue. When he sold the paper company and retired, he bought a large tract of land on what was then the outskirts of the city. In 1921, he suffered a stroke and died. By that time, he had willed the land to the city for use as a park. A year later, additional land was purchased, and the city began to build the park. In the 1930s, a dam was built across Gill Creek, which flooded swampland and created Hyde Park Lake. In 1928, the Niagara Falls Power Company donated to the park. The company donated additional land in 1943.
Sal Maglie Stadium was originally built in 1936 as a
Works Progress Administration project during the
Great Depression and dedicated by U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Originally known as Hyde Park Stadium, it was built as a multi-purpose facility. In the 1980s, the stadium was renamed Sal Maglie Stadium to honor the
Major League Baseball player who had grown up in Niagara Falls. In 1998, it was demolished and rebuilt as a facility designed only for baseball. ==References==