The third-oldest MLB stadium, known to LA Dodgers fans as Blue Heaven on Earth, is a nostalgic example of midcentury-modern architecture

The Brooklyn Dodgers once played in a small ballpark in the borough’s Flatbush neighborhood. So how did the team end up in the Dodger Stadium of today—a midcentury-modern structure with sweeping views of Los Angeles?

“The city of Los Angeles was the ultimate Plan B for the Brooklyn Dodgers,” Mark Langill, the team’s historian, says in a new installment of AD ’s Inside History video series . However, when team president Walter O’Malley saw the freeway access leading to the canyon of Chavez Ravine, just north of downtown LA, the sports exec thought it’d be “the perfect place” for a stadium that would be in a league of its own.

Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962 and seats a whopping 56,000 fans, has now hosted games in 12 World Series, including in 2024 and 2025 when the Los Angeles Dodgers won the championship.…