Hall's Prominence Surprised
Stephen Clark, Homer Osterhoudt
![Against a backdrop of a photo of the Hall of Fame's first induction, in 1939, Homer Osterhoudt, center, who attended the original induction and all but three since, and Hall Curator Emeritus Ted Spencer discuss how the Hall's become a centerpiece of American life and myth. At left is moderator Bruce Markusen. (Jim Kevlin/allotsego.com)](https://www.allotsego.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/hof-homer.jpg)
By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com
![Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark chats with an attendee after she and Hall President Jeff Idelson conducted a Q&A in the Hall's Bullpen Theater this afternoon.](https://www.allotsego.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/hof-jane--272x300.jpg)
COOPERSTOWN – Few people realized the Baseball Hall of Fame's potential when it was officially opened on June 12, 1939, 75 years ago this year.
Not Homer Osterhoudt, then a young man in his 20s standing in the lower left of photos taken that day of the throng in front of 25 Main. (Osterhoudt, now in his mid-90s, has attended every induction except three since then.)
At the time, Osterhoudt had spent the past two years on the construction crew of what he thought would be "a little museum on Main Street" and was somewhat taken aback that day by autograph seekers clamoring around Honus Wagner when he arrived at the passenger depot behind Bruce Hall's.
A country boy, raised on a farm near Phoenix Mills, he’d never seen a crowd as large as the one that gathered to christen the Hall that day.
Nor Stephen C. Clark, the museum's founder.
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