West Philadelphia’s Parkside neighborhood is getting ready to play ball with history again. On Sunday, community members gathered at Parkside and Belmont avenues to see design renderings for a reimagined Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park, pairing a fresh mural with three-dimensional, baseball-themed sculptures that spotlight the Stars’ roots in the neighborhood. Organizers described the overhaul as a way to connect Parkside’s past with its future while keeping the story of Black baseball front and center in Philly’s public memory.
Funding and the All‑Star Legacy
According to MLB.com, MLB Together and Phillies Charities are putting more than $5.5 million into 2026 All‑Star Legacy projects, and the Stars memorial is one of the upgrades aimed at boosting youth access to baseball and shoring up neighborhood programs. The community dedication kicked off at 10 a.m. and featured MLB Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility April Brown, Phillies Charities president Bonnie Clark, MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds, sculptor Miguel Horn and relatives of former Stars players, according to 6abc Philadelphia. Phillies alumni Gary "Sarge" Matthews, Mickey Morandini and Dickie Noles, along with the Phillie Phanatic and the Phillies ballgirls, helped pull in a crowd of students and neighbors, the station reported.
Design and public art
Mural Arts Philadelphia is steering the artistic redesign and tapped David McShane to create a new version of the Stars mural after the original was removed earlier this year. As reported by Billy Penn, McShane’s updated piece will span a newly built 12-foot wall and will be joined by a 7-foot bronze player statue by Phil Stumpter, a perimeter fence art screen and child-silhouette sculptures developed with sculptor Miguel Horn. Project leaders said the expanded wall gives them room to feature more players, team ownership and regional Black baseball history in the visual story.
Who showed up
The unveiling drew league officials, former pros and neighborhood students, with the Phillie Phanatic and Phillies ballgirls adding a bit of ballpark-style chaos to the morning, according to 6abc Philadelphia. Organizers said the new installation is meant to "connect the neighborhood's past with its future" by honoring the Stars and the broader Negro Leagues while tying that history directly to youth programming in Parkside.
Timeline and what's next
Construction on the new wall and other installations was set to begin this week, with the mural scheduled to be finished in time for the MLB All‑Star Game at Citizens Bank Park on July 14, according to CBS Philadelphia. Mural Arts Philadelphia said the project is a response to the loss of the original mural and is designed as a durable tribute that will stay woven into West Parkside’s public landscape for years to come.
Why it matters
For neighbors and historians, the upgrades are intended to lock in the Philadelphia Stars’ place in the city’s civic story and give local kids a visible, everyday link to that legacy, as reported by Billy Penn. Organizers and league partners say the memorial is designed to combine public art with educational programming, so it can function both as a site of remembrance and as an active hub for youth engagement.
