Gulf Freeway nearing downtown Houston in the early 1950s. Old Buff Stadium was still there back then. You will see it in the lower right side foreground. And soon, the Finger Furniture Sports Museum that has preserved the old ballpark’s memory for the past half century will be gone too. Forever. (Photo by TxDot)
It’s way too early to know for sure what happens next to the property that has housed the Finger Furniture store on the Gulf Freeway at Cullen for the past fifty years, but it’s a safe bet that it will never again be reincarnated in our lifetime as the grand old baseball park it used be from 1928 to 1952, when it was known as Buffalo/Buff Stadium and then Busch Stadium from 1953 to 1961.
Gone now is the Houston Sports Museum, the small site within Finger’s that housed Houston’s only public collection and display of its early baseball history, thanks to the late Sammy Finger. The tradition was kept alive by Sammy’s son, the late Bobby Finger, and grandson Rodney Finger, but that stalwart effort is now gone with the wind as an “on-site” historical preservation at the location of home plate within the store of home plate in the original ballpark. Even if the Finger family now moves to reestablish the museum elsewhere in the community, and many us most sincerely hope they do, there will never again be a likely way to attach the museum to its root site in history. And that probability slips away with the absence of future operators on the site that have any emotional connection to what was once the heart of professional baseball in the City of Houston.
We are still waiting to hear from the Finger family on their exact plans for the artifact collection and we have no definitive date for the store’s actual closing, We are reasonably sure that any closing will first be preceded by one of those “going out of business” sales that may almost make us think the place isn’t closing at all, but you never know. This second time for Finger’s may be a closer that comes quick.
If you’ve never been to the museum at the 4500 Gulf Freeway location of Finger’s on the north (into town) side of the Gulf Freeway, you may want to check it out while that’s still possible. It would probably be a good idea to call Finger’s before you go down there, just to confirm that the museum site is still open for free public viewing.
When we get further specific word from the company on their future museum plans, if any, you can count us letting you know what’s up here at The Pecan Park Eagle.
Have a great Wednesday, everybody.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 8, 2012 at 3:58 pm |
Fortunately, we got to see the museum reinstated and had a great SABR day meeting there in 2011. With Larry Dierker, Jimmy Wynn and Hall of Famer Monte Irvin all present, it was a great meeting.
There is still the old mill building for sale on Texas Avenue, just a 3 block walk from the Crawford boxes. At 4 stories tall and given its location, I still think it would be a great location for a Houston baseball museum. We had located this property prior to Finger’s reopening, so perhaps it is time for someone to revisit the project. In the imterim, thank you Bobby Finger for your dedication to Houston baseball and for being such a great host in 2011