Finger’s Closes Soon. Fate of Houston Sports Museum Unknown.
The news is all wrapped up in the picture and caption above. Yesterday many of us learned from a mailed advertising flyer that the Finger Furniture flagship store that had reopened at 4001 Gulf Freeway in February 2010 after closing for the first time earlier in 2009 soon will be shutting their doors again. And this time, it’s for good,
We may only presume that the current competitive market among Houston-based furniture giants was the reason, although the family certainly had made their run in that field from the time that Sam Finger first opened his first Houston store in 1927.
Of course, for many of us, the news strikes again at the heart of our love and commitment to the preservation of Houston baseball history. Closing the store will bring an end to the on-site presence of the Houston Sports Museum inside the store at the former location of home plate in old Buff Stadium from 1928 to 1961.
I contacted museum curator Tom Kennedy as soon as I learned of this development yesterday. Even Tom does not yet know the family’s plans for the artifacts from the museum – or whether there is any family interest in resurrecting the museum elsewhere, alone or in partnership with other community groups or businesses. Kennedy promised to consult with Finger’s owner/CEO Rodney Finger and get back with me at the earliest opportunity.
It is sad news. We are losing the only extant museum at a historical site of importance to Houston baseball history and we don’t know if all the recent restorations and additions to the collection will be displayed elsewhere, put back in purgatorial period storage, distributed to family for their individual amusement, auctioned on E-Bay for the family trust fund, returned to individual donors, or bought up by out-of-town collectors and relocated to collectible shops in places like Miami and Oakland.
The museum and its baseball artifacts deserve a plan that protects and expands upon their integrity and importance to the history of this city. We can only hope that the Finger family will now take a leadership role in making sure this happens. Their true legacy is to the people of Houston and the history of our great city.
Tags: Finger's Museum Site Closing, Houston Sports Museum at Finger's
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 5, 2012 at 1:18 pm |
It it very say, just how many of us that read and comment on this blog have actually sit in Buff Stadium before Fingers, I did! so it is one more piece of history that has passed through my eyes. I for one would have been much happier not seeing any change the past 60+ years.
August 5, 2012 at 3:34 pm |
Bill, I have two ideas. My first and favorite is that Mattress Mac is feeling ready to expand and is willing to buy/take over the Fingers location and install Gallery Furniture there. It seems to me he could use a presence on that side of town. To my knowledge he’s only in the north and in the Galleria area. And Jim McIngvale is a sports buff with a keen sense of history. If anyone has ever been inside his I-45 location, they likely have seen his amazing trove of valuable artifacts and memorabilia in that store.
If moving into the Gulf Freeway location isn’t a possibility, maybe he could be interested in purchasing the museum’s contents to re-display them in his I-45 location. The cost of the collection might not be an obstacle. Mac has some amazingly valuable things in the I-45 location, with nothing as valuable at the Fingers store. For example, he has a Cadillac and guitar once owned by Elvis and a Liverpool musical instrument store receipt signed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and the group’s manager at that time. (Brian Epstein?) The chief undesirable part of that from my perspective is that the original home plate site of old Buff Stadium is forever lost. But at least it could have a place where it could continue to be represented as an important part of Houston history.
I wonder who might talk about this with Jim Mac?
Mark
August 5, 2012 at 3:56 pm |
Funny as this is said, we have a friend that found a signed baseball in his mother’s attic with signatures on it. I presume it was signatures of the Buff’s. Would love to know what happened to it.
This man is 91 who found the baseball.
Steve and Mary Pat
August 5, 2012 at 4:19 pm |
Steve – Please tell your friends not to write on the ball to bring out the visibility of the signatures. When people do that, it totally destroys their collectible value. The best place for a ball like that one is out the light in total darkness until they can be encased in special protective plastic. I still prefer the sock drawer or safe deposit box for very old valuable signed balls. If you find out what names are on the ball, let me know. We can probably figure out the team and year from a little information, plus knowing the kind of ball they signed is a helpful clue as well.
August 5, 2012 at 4:59 pm |
I enjoyed my visit to the museum (and who could forget Elvin Bethea’s shoes?) and hope the museum finds a new home even if it won’t be at home plate of Buff Stadium. Perhaps hosting the museum somewhere at Union Station would be a great idea or if the county ever decides what it is doing with the Astrodome, it could be re-located there with a ton of new Astros/Oilers memories added to it.
August 5, 2012 at 5:40 pm |
What about people who have ordered furniture
From them that 2 months later still haven’t rec’d
Them?