History of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum

    George Herman "Babe" Ruth was born February 6, 1895 at 216 Emory Street, a Baltimore row house that is now just a long fly ball from Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The property was leased by Babe's grandfather, Pius Schamberger, who made his living as an upholsterer.

    By the late 1960s the property and adjoining three row-house structures had fallen into disrepair and were scheduled for demolition. Hirsh Goldberg, press secretary for Baltimore's Mayor Theodore McKeldin, launched a successful campaign to save and restore the Birthplace, which opened to the public as a national shrine in 1974. The not-for-profit Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation, Inc. was formed to govern the operation. Exhibits depicting the Historic House and life and times of Babe Ruth were installed with the help of Babe's widow, Claire; his two daughters, Dorothy and Julia; and his sister, Mamie, who was also born at 216 Emory Street.

    In 1983 the operation expanded to become the official museum of the Baltimore Orioles, the team that signed Ruth to his first professional contract. At that time, the Foundation began formally operating as the Babe Ruth Museum. In 1985 the Mayor of Baltimore, William Donald Schaefer, designated the Museum as the official archives of the Baltimore Colts, who had departed the previous year for Indianapolis.

    Museum attendance soared to over 60,000 annually with the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992, and Museum officials knew that the tiny Birthplace facility could not sufficiently house the large numbers of visitors or the increased number of displays it needed to interpret its multiple sports themes.

    Over the course of its 30-year history, the Babe Ruth Museum's mission has evolved to not only feature the greatest baseball player ever, but also to present the rich and storied histories of Baltimore's Orioles and Colts. Upon the opening of Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards on May 14, 2005, those artifacts moved into a new and larger home at Camden Station. Meanwhile, the Birthplace has reverted to its original mission to feature exhibits on the life and times of George Herman "Babe" Ruth.