Enhanced facility helps Canadian ball hall usher in exciting new era
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame director of operations Scott Crawford led the 2019 inductees and their families on a tour of the newly renovated Hall of Fame’s main exhibit space on Saturday prior to the induction ceremony. Photo: J.P. Antonacci
June 19, 2019
By J.P. Antonacci
Canadian Baseball Network
It’s a promise Adam Stephens is ecstatic to have finally kept.
For years, the chair of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame board of directors had opened the annual induction ceremony in St. Marys, Ont. by promising attendees that the museum would soon get a much-needed facelift.
“I am so pleased to be able to say that the future is now and we have opened a beautiful, brand new museum,” a beaming Stephens announced on Saturday, unveiling the extensively remodeled facility before introducing the all-Canadian class of 2019 – Gord Ash, Jason Bay, Ryan Dempster, and Rob Thomson.
“And the word ‘class’ applies to each of them,” Stephens said.
The newest inductees will join fellow Canadian baseball luminaries inside a museum that now boasts state of the art storage and exhibit space, as well as a 2,500-square-foot addition housing a visitors lounge and library.
“It really tells the story of Canada’s baseball history in new and reimagined ways,” Stephens said.
The Howard Webster Visitor Lounge is a place for “quiet contemplation” after touring the museum, he added, as well as a venue for hosting events such as the induction day press conference, which used to be held at the town hall.
The Hall of Fame’s artifacts are now stored in a space that’s up to current museum standards in terms of climate control and other preservation measures.
“We have much more storage to properly care for our collection, so that people who are donating their treasured items know that they will be well cared for and protected and researched, so that these great artifacts will be the subject of discovery and education,” Stephens said.
Raising the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s national profile by introducing new programs is a priority for board member Libby Walker, pictured inside the new Harry Simmons Memorial Library. Photo: J.P. Antonacci.
Updating the hall’s storage space was crucial, explained Libby Walker, a recently appointed board member who has a background in museum programming.
“A lot of our collection was stored offsite. It was not in appropriate packaging,” she said. “So this renovation allows us to properly care for, maintain, and also access the collection.”
She noted that artifacts have been organized and catalogued digitally, making them easy to retrieve for display and study purposes.
“It’s really going to revolutionize what we’re able to do with the content we have,” Walker said.
Nearly half of the addition to the building is home to the Harry Simmons Memorial Library and the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research, a history nut’s dream with over 5,000 baseball books on the shelves – some dating from the late 1800s – plus umpteen programs, scorecards, correspondence and other documents that help tell the story of baseball’s development in Canada.
“So what you have in this building is the greatest source of Canadian baseball books, records and primary material anywhere in the world,” Stephens said.
Now that the 17-month renovation process is in the rear-view mirror, Walker says the museum is poised to take the next big step.
“It’s a state of the art museum property and it has a phenomenal collection, so the next step is to bring this collection to a Canadian audience” by forming ties with other organizations and launching a series of “outreach ventures” like travelling mini exhibits and “study kits” to boost educational programming in schools and online.
“It’s about storytelling, and that’s what a lot of museum programming is all about today – making personal connections,” Walker said.
“That’s our plan – to really make it a national hall of fame (and) to make the collection come alive. There’s lots of opportunity, and really, the sky’s the limit.”