I haven't been to that area in a long time, but when the park was built it was put in Schenley Farms, which was part of the Mary Schenley Estate and in a good residential area. Because of that, Forbes Field was classy. It was one of the 1st ballparks to be built of concrete and steel. It had elevators, electric lights, telephones, ramps instead of steps, maids in the ladies rooms, and was the 1st park to have luxury suites. This is a line from the PIttsburgh Press about its opening on June 29, 1909. "The ceremonies were witnessed by the largest throng that ever attended an event of this kind in this or any other city in the country . Forbes Field is so immense—so far beyond anything else in America in the way of a baseball park—that old experts, accustomed to judging crowds at a glance, were at a loss for reasonable figures." Records show that the first game was attended by a
standing-room only crowd of 30,338. One other note. Pirate Owner Barney Dreyfuss "hated cheap
home runs and vowed he'd have none in his park", which led him to design a large playing field for Forbes Field. The
original distances to the
outfield fence in left, center, and right field were 360 feet, 462 feet and 376 feet, respectively. With the large outfield, triples were common. The Bucs hit a record
8 triples in one game in 1925. (In 2017, the Toronto Blue Jays hit only 5 triples
all season).