Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992 TAG: 9202110008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium
ORIOLE PARK STADIUM UNEARTHS THE OUTHOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT
The "House that Ruth Built" is in New York, but the outhouse built for Ruth is in his hometown - underneath center field in the city's new baseball stadium.The privy used by the Sultan of Swat and his family was among a treasure trove of artifacts found by archaeologists working with construction crews at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles begin playing this spring.
"This is in my opinion the premier collection of urban artifacts ever excavated in our entire region," said R. Christopher Goodwin, whose archaeological firm conducted the dig for the Maryland Stadium Authority.
The stadium, which officially opens April 6, was built in a section southwest of downtown called Camden Yards, after an old station of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
One of the area's former residents was the Babe's father, George Herman Ruth Sr., who operated a saloon from 1906 to 1912 in what is now center field.
The Ruths lived above the saloon and their privy was directly behind it. Bruce Hoffman, the stadium authority's executive director, said the privy had been filled in and did not pose a sanitary threat in center field.
Babe Ruth himself lived perhaps three years in Camden Yards because from 1902 to 1914, he was in and out of reform school, researchers say.
He went on to become baseball's first great slugger. New York's Yankee Stadium became known as the "House that Ruth Built" because it was built to accommodate the bigger crowds Ruth attracted.
Before the Baltimore dig, archaeologists created a computerized geographic information system using 113 historic maps of the area, which helped them locate the Ruth saloon and other landmarks.
Archaeologists also were aided by the recollections of Babe Ruth's 92-year-old sister, Mary Ruth Moberly, now living in Hagerstown.
"She thought we were benign, but crazy," Goodwin said of Miss Moberly's reaction to digging up the privy.
Workers dug nearly 100 trenches throughout the 71-block site and uncovered 41,300 artifacts. Most were bits of broken glass, china and pottery. Some have been pieced together into pots, plates and pitchers.
One prize find was a flintlock that may have been left behind by a French soldier during the Revolutionary War. Researchers even found an old pottery kiln that was unrecorded.
Privies are historical time capsules because they were used for trash disposal before communities had municipal trash service, said Martha Williams, a researcher for Goodwin's firm.
"If you can find one that hasn't been cleaned out, you can find a wealth of information. But 200 years does not make a difference [in the human waste], so there can be kind of nasty stuff," she said.
The dig on the Ruth property yielded two privies, one dug for the Ruths and one made 100 years earlier and used by Frances Whiddington, an upper-class woman, whose status is reflected in the broken porcelain and pottery that she discarded.
Items taken from the later privy included old pipes, glassware, china, old cherry pits, watermelon seeds and a coconut, Ms. Williams said.
Because the outhouse was used by other dwellers after the Ruth family, it is impossible to determine which items came from the Ruth household. But items from that site will be sent to the nearby Babe Ruth Museum, she said.
The discovery of the potter's kiln and the fragments of pottery left there also should help collectors, said Susan Sanders, who was crew chief for the Camden Yards dig.
"Each potter had his own pattern for his pottery. If other pieces are found in other digs, they could be traced back to Baltimore," she said.