Tracing the Roots of Baltimore Baseball Legend, Leon Day - Entrepreneur Generations

Baseball Hall-of-Famer and Negro Leagues star Leon Day moved to Baltimore when he six months old and spent much of his life here. He went to Douglass High School, dropping out at the age of 17 to play for the Baltimore Black Sox before going on to star for several other Negro League teams, and he lived his post-playing life in Baltimore, until his death in 1995. After years of getting passed over, Leon Day was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1995. He died six days later.

From all accounts, Leon Day was an amazing pitcher -- he's said to be as good as Bob Gibson and Satchel Paige, though more understated than the latter -- and Baltimore has honored him by naming a street, a city park, and a foundation after him. Recently, I visited his grave in Baltimore County and wrote about it here, and also reached out to Mr. Day's widow, Geraldine Day, about visiting my classroom (I think it's going to happen in October). Mr. Day would have been 100 this October 30th, and there will be a celebration at the Babe Ruth Museum on October 29th that I plan on attending.

This is a great overview of Leon Day's life. Upon returning to Baltimore after his illustrious playing career, Day worked as a bartender, a security guard, and a janitor at Holiday Inn, and he had lived with his wife for 2 years before she even knew he was a star baseball player (she met him after his playing career); she overheard him on the phone. That's how modest he was.

I've become interested in tracing Leon Day's root in Baltimores, especially after visiting fellow baseball Hall of Famer Al Kaline's childhood home in Baltimore earlier this summer (my blog about visiting his childhood home here), as well as Babe Ruth's mom's grave (blog entry here) and father's grave (blog entry here) in Baltimore.

I started off with some googling. This website reports that Leon Day grew up in a house on Pierpont Street; I couldn't find an address, but went ahead and visited this small street, which consists of a half-dozen nicely maintained row houses book-ended by empty fields, but there were no hints of Leon Day there.

At a deadend, I asked Carol Ott of Housing Policy Watch if she had any ideas to figure out where exactly Leon Day might have lived, and she was able to do some digging.

It turns out, there's no record of Leon Day's family living on Pierpont Street at all, though they did live in a few places in that general neighborhood. The family's first house in Baltimore, shown on the 1920 census with no specific address, was on "Cistern Street," which doesn't exist anymore. The census reveals that the entire Day family -- father Ellis (45 years old in 1920); mother Hattie (37 years old); son Ellis Jr. (13); William H. (10); Ida M. (5); Leon (3 1/2); and Robert (6 months old) -- was living in Baltimore on Cistern Street in 1920. Dad worked as a laborer at a glass factory.

With Leon Day's toddler-aged home gone from the landscape, the next option was his family's next recorded location, this one from the 1930 census, when his family lived at 2506 Puget Street. I searched this out. Unfortunately, this is also no longer an address of any house, either. A big open field exists as place where the 2500 block of Puget would have been.

However, in 1937, the year Leon Day turned 21, he lived at 2411 Puget Street, and he also lived there later in life, as evidenced by this snippet in the 2003 book Baseball in Newark. A Baltimore phone book from 1937 lists him under "Day" as "Leon, ball player." His dad, Ellis, is also still listed here at 2411 Puget, as is his sister Ida Mae. At this point, his mother, Hattie, had passed away; she died in 1934 at the age 51, around the time Leon left home to play baseball full-time. Ida Mae remained by his side just as his wife did; Ida Mae (1914-1998) was living with Leon and Geraldine when he passed away in 1995.

Since he lived there from the time he was 20 until after his playing career ended (the snippet from the book has him looking back at his playing career, and he played from when he was 17 years old until he was 39 years old), it's probably safe to say he spent a least a couple of decades in this house at 2411 Puget, at least when he wasn't playing. And, for all I know, he could have spent much of the rest of his life in this home, although I have no idea (I will ask his widow when I meet her).

The 2400 block of Puget street is only a block long, before being cut off by the vacant field where his family's house at 2506 Puget would have been. Located very close to Mount Auburn Cemetery in the Mt. Winans neighborhood of Baltimore, in Westport, it is also nearly next door to Mt. Winans First Baptist Church, which has been around since 1880 (at that location since 1945, so during the time that Leon Day lived there).

As you can see from the photos, 2411 Puget is a little bit ramshackle today. It seems to lean in on itself, and some tiles seem to be hanging on for dear life. Indeed, I'm unsure if anyone lives there. Still, I marveled at its history; I bet the house looks exactly the same as when Leon Day was living there.

I need to thank Carol Ott for being my housing sleuth on this matter. She provided me with census records from 1920 and 1930, plus a phone book from 1937, which helped me track down Leon Day's roots here in Baltimore.

Below are several photos I took of 2411 Puget, plus a page from the 1920 census and the 1930 census, with the information about Leon Day's family there; I've also included the 1937 phone book listing Leon, Hattie, and Ida Mae all living at 2411 Puget. All of these historical documents are courtesy of the aforementioned Ms. Ott (please consider a tax-deductible donation to Housing Policy Watch, the non-profit housing advocacy group she coordinates).

I promise to learn more in the upcoming months about Leon Day, as I attend the Centennial Celebration of his Birthday (Oct. 29, Babe Ruth Museum) and invite his widow to speak to my 9th grade classes while we read Fences (a play about an ex-Negro League baseball player).

I'm really loving tracing the stories of people and history lately. Thanks for coming along for the ride! I'm sure more writing about teaching soon.

2411 Puget, Leon Day's former home, in August 2016. He lived here, at least off and on, from at least 1937 until some point after his playing career ended in 1955.

2411 Puget, Leon Day's former residence, in August 2016.

Shot of Leon Day's old backyard.

View from in front of the Mt. Winans First Baptist Church.

Clipping about Geraldine Day from The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware. Sunday, September 15, 1996.

1920 Census. The Day family lived on Cistern Street, which no longer exists. The Days moved to Baltimore when Leon was 6 months old; for the 1920 census, he is three-and-a-half.

The 1930 census, showing the Days lived at 2506 Puget, which now is a vacant field. 

The 1937 phone book, which lists Leon as a "ball player". He would have been 20-21 years old.

Google shot of 2411 Puget Street (there's a pointer there), and the big brown lot in the middle is where 2506 Puget would have been. Part of the famous Mount Auburn Cemetery is in the bottom right corner of the photo.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2bL3PWD Tracing the Roots of Baltimore Baseball Legend, Leon Day - Entrepreneur Generations

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