The Babe Ruth Museum announced renovation plans to the Emory Street row house where the baseball legend was born Thursday, 71 years to the day after its namesake hit his final home run, No. 714.
The museum, which operates out of the birthplace, hopes to raise $714,000 over the next four months.
The museum will close in October and reopen next spring with new interactive exhibits, entrances and access ramps.
“We have to renovate the building and then drop all new exhibits, so it?s going to be a real challenge,” said Michael Gibbons, the museum?s executive director.
Ruth was born in the house on Feb. 6, 1895. Ruth?s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, could not make the announcement after breaking her leg this week.
“Daddy would have been proud to be honored in this fashion. He worked hard to rise up from this humble house to become the greatest player of all-time,” said Ruth Stevens, 89, in a statement.
The house was saved from demolition in the 1960s thanks to an public fundraising effort by Hirsh Goldberg, now a columnist for The Examiner, a then-press secretary for city Mayor Theodore McKeldin.
By 1974, it was a museum of Ruth?s life and professional baseball career.
During the 1980s, the museum was also home to the Orioles? museum.
The museum drew 60,000 annually in the early 1990s, but has dropped to 40,000 in recent years.
“As the Orioles go, so goes the sports-related industries intown ? and we?re one of them,” Gibbons said. “I think the elongated pattern of losing has decreased attendance there and has decreased admissions at our place.”
Gibbons said the renovation should spike attendance.
National interest in the museum has come, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds recently tied Ruth?s second all-time mark of 714 home runs.
“[The national media] really don?t want to talk too much about Bonds,” Gibbons said.
“They want to talk about Babe Ruth. So, this has in fact, turned into an opportunity for the national media to refocus on what made Babe Ruth the greatest player in the game.”
