Hallowed Grounds Take a walk on the beach or a trip to the mall, and you might find yourself standing on the site of a storied sports venue

Daytona Beach and Road Course
The first 12 NASCAR races in Daytona (1948 through '58) were held
on a 4.1-mile track that was half beach and half Highway A1A.
(Pictured here is a 1948 motorcycle race.) The sand and the road
are still there (inset), though A1A has been widened to four
lanes. The stock cars moved four miles inland to Daytona Speedway
in 1959.

Montreal Forum
The 22-screen megaplex at the corner of St. Catherine and Atwater
(left) has room for 4,300 people, roughly a fourth of what the
Forum, the home of the Canadiens for 71 years, held when it
closed in 1996. The complex also has a climbing wall and a
multimedia exhibit called Memories of the Forum.

Metropolitan Stadium
Want to pay homage to the Minnesota Vikings' defense of yore by
listening to Sheb Wooley's classic Purple People Eater? You
shouldn't have trouble finding the CD at the Mall of America
(above), the country's biggest shopping complex. More than 520
stores--and an amusement park called Camp Snoopy--are located in
suburban Bloomington on the site of the Met, which the Vikings
called home from 1961 through '81.

Forbes Field
On what was once an infield patrolled by Honus Wagner and Bill
Mazeroski sits Posvar Hall, the largest classroom building on the
University of Pittsburgh campus (left). The stadium, which was
the Pirates' home from 1909 through '70, was demolished in '71,
but part of the ivy-covered outfield wall still stands, and home
plate remains in place, under glass on a first-floor walkway in
Posvar.

Madison Square Garden
The third edition of the world's most Famous Arena (below) was
located in New York City at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 50th
Street in Hell's Kitchen from 1925 to '67. The once tough
neighborhood has undergone a revival thanks largely to the 1989
construction of Worldwide Plaza, a 50-story office building and
condo complex on the old Garden site.

Seals Stadium
The Giants called it home for their first two years in san
francisco, but the quaint park (above) at 16th and Bryant streets
in the Mission District was best known as the home of the minor
league Seals from 1931 through '58. On the site now is Potrero
Center, a shopping complex that includes a grocery store whose
aisles are said to be roamed late at night by the ghosts of
former Seals players.

B/W PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE SCHERSCHEL/LIFE

COLOR PHOTO: PRESTON MACK (INSET)

B/W PHOTO: CANAPRESS

COLOR PHOTO: LADISLAS KADYSZEWSKI (MEGAPLEX)

B/W PHOTO: COURTESY OF MINNESOTA VIKINGS

COLOR PHOTO: BRUCE KLUCKHOHN (MALL)

COLOR PHOTO: SCOTT GOLDSMITH

B/W PHOTO: AP (BELOW)

COLOR PHOTO: MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II

B/W PHOTO: TIME INC. PICTURE COLLECTION (BELOW)

B/W PHOTO: UPI/CORBIS BETTMANN (TOP)

COLOR PHOTO: DEB FINNEGAN