Baseball hero Hank Aaron’s childhood home set to be moved to a Mobile city park

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - For over a decade, baseball legend Hank Aaron’s childhood home and museum has sat right next to Hank Aaron Stadium.

The stadium closed over a year ago, along with the home, and now the City of Mobile is relocating the home to James Seals Park.

Just this week, the City announced they put out a bid to relocate it this summer.

“This move to Seals Park is a good first move- I’m not sure it’s the permanent move, but it’s a good move for us to get it out there because there’s no activity out there and so we want to bring it downtown where there could be some activity around it,” said Danny Corte, Executive Director of Mobile Sports Authority.

Hank Aaron’s legacy, Corte says, must be preserved.

“Hank Aaron is our number one sports hero here,” added Corte. “And in sports history, in the game of major league baseball, it’s really intriguing. Hopefully, we can tell that story once we get the house established somewhere, and then we can put the artifacts in it that are back in Cooperstown, New York, and really create tourism.”

District 2 Councilman William Carroll says James Seals Park, right off Hank Aaron Loop in Downtown Mobile, is an ideal destination.

“We’re downtown and we’re close enough for a casual tourist who wants to come by. And baseball is returning to Texas Street park where the kids practice every day. It’s a timely event for it to happen.”

Carroll says he’s unsure on whether or not the house will be open for tours once it arrives at James Seals. He says plans for the home are yet to be determined.

His true wish, however, is to bring the house back to Hank Aaron’s original community of Toulminville.

“The short-term goal is to have a place for it to go,” explained Carroll. “But the long-term goal is to get it back into the community where it originally came from.”

Carroll says the price tag to move the house is expected to be hefty.

“I’m not going to quote any numbers because this job is out for bid right now,” stated Carroll. “It’s an undertaking, but it’s an undertaking that we as a city of Mobile are willing to do based on the historical significance of the home.”

As for the stadium itself, Corte says the future remains ambiguous.

”My hope from the Sports Authority point of view is that somebody buys it, keeps Hank Aaron stadium so that we can bring some tournaments in and use the Hank as sort of the central location,” added Corte.

The City of Mobile says they expect the contract for the relocation to go before the City Council by the end of April.

In the meantime, they say their goal is to relocate the house by July.