There are few spaces in Detroit that have changed so much, for so long, with so much attention as the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

A rickety wooden ballpark arose there in 1896, and it gradually evolved into beloved Tiger Stadium. It has now been transformed into the Detroit Police Athletic League’s new playfield for youth baseball. In all, “The Corner” ­­ − as the site came to be known − has entranced Detroit for 122 years.

The Detroit Police Athletic League (PAL) project, funded with $20 million in donor gifts, opens to the public Saturday, March 24, and begins a new chapter for the park now officially named The Corner Ballpark presented by Adient.

“With the help of our generous donors, we have been able to build a new home for PAL and our 14,000 girls and boys,” says Tim Richey, CEO of Detroit PAL. “This new stadium is a statement of PAL’s commitment to the sports and programs we offer, and the youth of Detroit.”

The revamped site includes a 2,500-seat stadium and PAL headquarters. The artificial turf playing surface will be called the Willie Horton Field of Dreams presented by Meijer, in honor of the longtime Tigers outfielder, who grew up in Detroit.

Detroit PAL, a 49-year-old nonprofit organization, runs a youth mentorship and sports program for more than 14,000 Detroit boys and girls from across the neighborhoods of Detroit. The Corner Ballpark will also be a place for events gathering people of all ages from across Detroit and the metropolitan area.

“Detroit PAL is one of our exemplary nonprofits.  It has a nearly a half-century track record serving the young people of Detroit,” says Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of The Kresge Foundation Detroit Program, which contributed $1 million to the project. “Now this corner so rich in Detroit history can play a role in providing mentoring and athletics for coming generations of young Detroiters by the thousands.”

It’s also a reflection of change in the city of Detroit.

Black Detroiters often felt unwelcome at the stadium where the home team failed to recruit its first player of color until 1958, 11 years after Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

“The Corner Ballpark really is a symbol of progress, a symbol of diversity, a symbol for today and the future,” says Jackson.

Throughout the 20^th century, the corner of Michigan and Trumbull had exerted a magical, Emerald-City-like attraction on many Detroiters. The successive ballparks there hosted tens of millions of people for Major League Baseball and National Football League games. There were also concerts, religious events, political gatherings, boxing matches and more.

Ty Cobb, one of the greatest ballplayers in history, played at for the site for 22 years, starting in 1905. Joe Louis, the hometown boxing champ, successfully defended his heavyweight title there in 1939. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s antiapartheid freedom fighter, appeared at a stirring rally in 1990 before a crowd of nearly 50,000.

Detroit became a baseball hotbed as it grew into a huge industrial center, and generations of fans – especially before color TV – fondly recall their first visit: walking up the stadium’s long ramps and being dazzled by the sudden sight of lush green grass surrounded by the stadium’s double-decked, dark green interior.

It was a place of great emotion: Passionate fans sometimes ignited crude bleacher chants, brawls and worse. On a more romantic note, couples got engaged over the stadium scoreboard and were married in the outfield stands. A few even had their ashes scattered on the field.

In the 1890s, the corner of Michigan and Trumbull was a picnic grounds and hay market. The local team, known simply as “the Detroits,” played in a minor league. The team built a wooden structure at the site and named it Bennett Park in honor of a popular player.

By 1912, the Tigers, as the team was now known, had joined the American League, appeared in three World Series and seen Bennett Park rebuilt into a 23,000-seat steel-and-concrete stadium called Navin Field after the team owner, Frank Navin. As Detroit boomed, the stadium gradually expanded.

In 1938 The Corner had a new name – Briggs Stadium, after new owner Walter O. Briggs – and the famous double-decking around the entire field, which was unique in the majors. In 1961, Briggs Stadium was renamed Tiger Stadium.

The last major-league game at The Corner took place Sept. 27, 1999 as the Tigers moved to the new Comerica Park. The stadium was demolished a decade later.