Hank Aaron Childhood Home and Museum

The Hank Aaron Childhood Home and Museum is a house museum located at the Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Mobile County. The museum details the life of Hank Aaron, the noted baseball player from Mobile, and also features exhibits about his family and baseball in Mobile throughout the twentieth century.

Hank Aaron Childhood Home and Museum Henry “Hank” Aaron was born in 1934 in Down the Bay, a low-income section of Mobile, to Herbert and Estella Aaron. Herbert Aaron built the family a three-room home in 1942 in the Toulminville neighborhood. The home was added onto in 1962 and 1972 and now has seven rooms. The single-story home features clapboard siding and a front porch supported by four square columns. The front has two oversize windows and an offset door. Hank’s mother Estella lived in the home from 1942 to 2007, when the city purchased the home. The house was moved from Toulminville to its current location on October 27, 2008. The relocation required more than seven hours and enlisted 100 people to move the house the seven miles. The restoration was a 22-month process, and its dedication and opening ceremony was on April 14, 2010. Then-Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, Aaron, and seven other members of the Major League Baseball’s National Hall of Fame were in attendance.

Hank Aaron, MVP The museum displays memorabilia from Hank Aaron, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky, and the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Important artifacts include Aaron’s Golden Glove Award from 1957, home-run record trophy, and original Louisville Slugger baseball bat design.

Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted with a voiceover recording from Aaron talking about his childhood playing baseball and segregation in Mobile during the 1940s and 1950s. In addition, the recording includes the announcement by Milo Hamilton, a well-known broadcaster, calling out Aaron’s 715th homerun, which broke Babe Ruth’s record.

One of the rooms features an exhibit about Aaron’s family, such as a dress belonging to his mother, Estella. Other rooms highlight Aaron’s baseball career, beginning with him playing baseball in childhood, his first professional contract with the Negro League, and his Major League Baseball career. Another room displays an exhibit of baseball traditions in Mobile, a Bears jersey, black and white photos of baseball in Mobile in the early 1900s, and other artifacts.

Hank Aaron Museum Dedication The museum runs a program for at-risk youth that provides free tours as well transportation to the museum. The museum is located at 775 Bolling Brothers Blvd., at Hank Aaron Stadium. The museum is open Monday through Friday, as well as during home games, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The entrance fee is $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for children 12 and under. To the north in or near downtown Mobile are the Bragg-Mitchell House, Historic Oakleigh Mansion, the William and Emily Hearin Mobile Carnival Museum, the History Museum of Mobile, Fort Condé, the Condé-Charlotte House and Museum, and the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico.

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