Until around 1860, the grounds of what became Franklin Field served as a potter's field where many Black Philadelphians were once interred. The crania of some of these individuals were unethically acquired by Samuel Morton and are now housed in the Penn Museum.

Franklin Field was built for US$100,000 (equivalent to $3,110,800 in 2020) and dedicated on April 20, 1895, for the first running of the Penn Relays. The Field supplemented and eventually replaced the venue called University Grounds, which was located a few blocks west on a block bounded by Spruce Street (north), 38th Street (east), Pine Street (south), Woodland Avenue and 37th Street T-intersection (northwest). Its location was typically given as "37th and Spruce".

Permanent Franklin Field construction did not begin until after the turn of the century. Weightman Hall gymnasium, the stadium, and permanent grandstands were designed by architect Frank Miles Day & Brother and were erected from 1903 to 1905 at a cost of US$500,000 (equivalent to $14,401,852 in 2020). The field was 714 feet (218 m) long and 443 feet (135 m) wide. The site featured a ¼-mile track, a football field, and a baseball diamond. Beneath the stands were indoor tracks and indoor training facilities.

In 1916, university officials, led by George Neitzche, planned with the city to build a new 100,000-seat half-sunken stadium for $750,000 at Woodland Ravine, a depression on the southeastern side of Woodland Cemetery. Plans called for a new train station called Union Station which would feature a Pennsylvania Railroad stop and a stop on a proposed (and never built) elevated subway line connected to the Market–Frankford Line. Architecture firm Koronski & Cameron created a rendering but plans quickly collapsed. Five years later, it was decided instead to expand Franklin Field.

1922 rebuilding
The current stadium structure was built in the 1920s, designed by Day & Klauder, after the original wooden bleachers were torn down. The lower tier was erected in 1922. The old wood stands were razed immediately following the Penn Relays and the new concrete lower tier and seating for 50,000 were built. The second tier was added in 1925, again designed by Day & Klauder, when it became the second (and the largest) two-tiered stadium in the United States.


Franklin Field upon completion in 1925.
The first football radio broadcast originated from Franklin Field in 1922. It was carried by Philadelphia station WIP. This claim is pre-empted by an earlier live radio broadcast emanating from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, on October 8, 1921, a full year before Franklin Field's claim to fame. Harold W. Arlin announced the live broadcast of the Pitt-West Virginia football game on October 8, 1921, on radio station KDKA. The first commercial football television broadcast in 1939 also came from Franklin Field

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