St. Agnes To Buy Former Babe Ruth School for Development

Officials from St. Agnes Hospital announced plans to acquire the 32-acre property of the former Cardinal Gibbons High School from the Archdiocese of Baltimore to create a mixed-use development that will include office space, housing and recreational facilities for the community.

The purchase price of the transaction was not disclosed. "The cost of the transaction is not final," said William Greskovich, the hospital's vice president of operations and capital projects.

Plans for the development remain sketchy but include an office building and housing for St. Agnes employees and the community at large, he said.

"This is a first cut of the vision," Greskovich said.

"We're so excited about this opportunity to keep Caton corner a Catholic corner," said Cardinal Edward O'Brien, archbishop of Baltimore.

The property was originally home to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, opened as an orphanage and boarding school by the archdiocese in 1866 and remaining in operation until 1950.

The most famous resident of St. Mary's was George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who as a child learned to play baseball on a field now known as Babe Ruth Field.

Cardinal Gibbons operated from 1962 until 2010, when it was one of 13 schools closed by the archdiocese.

One part of the plan is to recreate home plate of the new baseball field as it was when Babe Ruth played at St. Mary's "so children will be able to step up to home plate and say that's where the Babe swung at a ball for the first time," said Greskovich.

The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, named for the former Orioles manager, will establish a youth development park on the baseball field to provide a variety of programs and services for at-risk youth in the community.

"These fields will not only afford a place for young at-risk kids to play and learn the values the Ripkens learned from their dad, they will transform neighborhoods as well," said state Sen. Frank Kelly, chairman of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.

Specific plans for the youth development park were not available. "We haven't worked out all the details," Kelly said. "I can tell you right here, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation is committed to working with St. Agnes Hospital to build the best possible youth development park utilizing this area to its maximum potential."

Many members of the Cardinal Gibbons community harbored suspicions that St. Agnes has long coveted the property across Caton Avenue from the hospital.

However, as recently as 2010, when the school closed, St. Agnes officials expressed no interest in buying the property. Greskovich said that conditions have changed since then.

"A lot's changed," he said. "We finished our over $250 million renovation here, the economy changed, a lot of things changed in two and a half years. But what remained the same is our concern that the property be developed in a way that is respectful to the Catholic corner history."

Discussions with St. Agnes began in December of 2011 after the archdiocese considered—and rejected—several commercial proposals that included, according to sources, the development of an industrial park or a strip shopping center.

"The archdiocese determined that offers did not satisfy their desires to create an environment that is respectful and inclusive to the surrounding community," Greskovich said.

The corner of Caton and Wilkens has special significance for the community, with generations of children attending Cardinal Gibbons while their parents worked at St. Agnes.

"They've always been joined at the hip," said Jay Dillow, who graduated in 1986 and served as chairman of Gibbons Educational Services, which serves as the school's alumni association.

Many people in the community had held out hope that another school would be established at that location, prospects that seemed increasingly remote as years passed.

On Facebook and in , alumni expressed frustration and anger at the archdiocese for what they said was neglect of the school, which is boarded up and has many second-floor windows broken out, with masonry crumbling and graffiti-riddled.

In particular, alums were concerned about the deterioration of The Grotto, an area with a statue of Mary that is a memorial to three students and a teacher killed in a plane crash in 1968. The statue was moved to St. Augustine Church in Elkridge in November of 2011.

"The Grotto has been in disrepair since the school closed," said Dillow.

Plans for the deal were disclosed to a group of Cardinal Gibbons alumni on the evening of March 1.

"I'm definitely surprised," said Zachary Zentz of Arbutus, who graduated from Cardinal Gibbons in 2004 and coached track and field from 2008 until the school closed.

"It's better to see something happen with it than see it as it is now, dark and empty," Zentz said.

"It's one of the most mixed emotions you can have," said Dillow, whose great-grandfather played baseball with Ruth when they attended St. Mary's together more than a century ago. "They're doing the right thing, taking over this property."