saw George Godfrey lose on a foul to Primo Carnera on June 23, 1930. Between 1938 and 1950 Of all the MLB parks whose permanent structures were built in the 19th century, the Baker Bowl hung on the longest, finally hosting its last game on June 30, 1938, or about 51 1/2 years after it opened. (Robison Field in St. Louis, the next-longest-lasting 19th-century big-league ballpark, had closed in 1920.) As early as 1928, the ballpark's site was put forth by the Greater Kensington Business Men's Association as an advantageous location for the city's proposed convention center. The ballpark was across the street from the Reading Railroad's North Broad station and the city's Broad Street Line subway had recently opened. The Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center would be built in 1931 near the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia's Center City. After the Phillies moved to Shibe Park, its new owners renamed the lot Philadelphia Gardens and experimented with various types of events. For 1939 the roof and upper deck were peeled off and a midget-car race track was built around the inside perimeter. In the summer of 1940, an ice rink of regulation hockey dimensions was installed, its underground machinery maintaining a frozen surface and enabling ice skating year round. The old centerfield clubhouse was remodeled into a piano bar and entertainment venue called "Dick McClain's Alpine Musical Bar" which opened on May 15, 1942, with the Harlem Highlanders. It would remain open until sometime in the summer of 1943. Local newspapers advertised dancing and skating at the old ballpark site. Temple's hockey team played some of their games at this site also. There were also occasional boxing matches staged there. These enterprises all faded away during World War II. In February 1946, Leonard Peto, owner of the former-Montreal Maroons NHL franchise, announced plans to revive the franchise in Philadelphia for the 1946-1947 NHL season as the league's seventh team. By March 1946, Peto and his partners had identified the Phillies' park site for their planned 20,000 uptown arena. However, the group was unable to secure funding for the project and the arena was never built. Philadelphia would eventually receive an NHL expansion team in 1967. By 1947, a business called Phillies Auto Mart at Broad and Huntington Streets advertised in the newspaper that prospective buyers could "Try It Out On the Old PHILLIES Ballpark Racing Oval." On July