Main image: 345 West 88th Street (Google Maps). Inset: Babe Ruth in 1933 (Charles M. Conlon, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
An Upper West Side home with Yankee pinstripes in its DNA has just hit the market.
Babe Ruth’s longtime apartment at 345 West 88th Street, where he lived during his storied Yankees career, is up for sale with an asking price of $1.59 million, the NY Post first reported. While real estate listings come and go in the neighborhood, it’s not every day they bring a legendary piece of sports history with it!
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The 3-bed, 2.5-bathroom apartment, located on the seventh floor of the building, features high ceilings, original moldings, and oversized windows that let in plenty of natural light. This unit was originally part of Babe Ruth’s 12-room home, back when he owned the entire building. He lived there with his second wife, Claire, and daughters Dorothy and Julia.
The apartment (see here) is part of the Warwick, a stately prewar co-op just off Riverside Drive. According to historical accounts, the Bambino lived in the building for almost two decades in the 1920s and ’30s. Ruth, one of the most iconic figures in American sports, was a record-breaking slugger whose powerful swing helped define baseball’s golden age and turn the Yankees into a legendary team.
Like many other iconic baseball players, Ruth’s ties to the neighborhood were long-standing and personal. Before settling into 345 West 88th Street, he lived at the legendary Ansonia building with his first wife, Helen. He also lived at 173 Riverside Drive from 1940 to 1942, before moving to 110 Riverside Drive, where he lived until his death in 1948.
The Upper West Side has changed dramatically since Ruth’s day, but every so often, a reminder of its rich cultural past resurfaces. For residents who love the area’s mix of old and new, the reappearance of this home serves as another chapter in our neighborhood’s long and storied history.
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What’s somewhat amusing about this is that Ruth actually lived in at least four different apartments on the UWS during his life. He even spent some time at the Ansonia. He ended his life living in an apartment on 83rd and RSD. In between, there was this 88th Street building and at least one other. So the same headline could be used for any of the four (or more) apartments in which he lived on the UWS.
BTW, it was while he was living in THIS apartment that my father was working for the dry cleaner Ruth used, and would deliver his dry cleaning to him, meeting him many times. And then, ironically, my family moved to 83rd Street b/w WEA and RSD and saw him a couple of times before he died. I even made friends with his widow (who I would often see walking), who gave me a poster of Ruth, which I had on my wall for years.