The president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum says they have had a long-range vision to expand outside Kansas City, "we don't have enough space to really do justice to everyone's story," says Bob Kendrick.
The museum is working with a St. Louis developer to establish an "outpost" of the museum in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood that would also house retail and senior living at the former United Railways Spring Avenue substation. The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
"You could think of it almost like a Smithsonian-like kind of relationship," says Kendrick, "where all roads lead back to the National Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City."
"St. Louis' black baseball history is tremendous," says Kendrick. "St. Louis had one of the original 8 Negro League franchises. Of course it started as the St. Louis Giants. The St. Louis Giants, of course, would morph into the great St. Louis Stars. The great city of St. Louis has had tremendous black baseball talent that called St. Louis home."
The city of St. Louis has already started the process of approving more than $17-million in tax abatement for the acre and-a-half site.
Listen to Bob Kendrick's conversation with Tom Ackerman and Carol Daniel.
Photo Credit: Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal via USA TODAY NETWORK