Danny Boy O'Connor, known for his work with the hip-hop group House of Pain, had been a lifelong fan of The Outsiders. In 2009, during a three-day layover while on tour, he explored Tulsa's filming locations and rediscovered the house. He kept visiting on subsequent trips, and in 2016 he bought it sight unseen. When he finally went inside, the condition was dire. With friends Zachary Matthew and Donnie Rich, O'Connor began painstaking renovations to restore the house to its exact appearance in the film, remaking the front door, leveling the foundation, and matching every visible detail to Coppola's frames. A GoFundMe campaign attracted donations from musician Jack White, who gave $30,000, and Billy Idol.

On August 5, 2019, the street signs at the corner were officially changed to 'The Outsiders Way' and 'The Curtis Brothers Lane.' Four days later, a ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the museum's opening. The interior spans the entire house: front porch, living room, dining room, bathroom, and kitchen, all restored to appear exactly as they did in the film. The museum is designed, as O'Connor describes it, to be 'created by the fans and for the fans.' Stars of the film have visited, including Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, and C. Thomas Howell. Author S.E. Hinton has called it a 'great job,' noting that 'teenage girls have walked in and burst into tears.'

By 2022, O'Connor estimated approximately 20,000 visitors had come through the museum. That same year, the group Upward Sperry completed restoration of the now-inoperative DX gas station in nearby Sperry, Oklahoma, where a scene from the film was shot. O'Connor published The Outsiders 'Rare and Unseen' in 2022, featuring 148 previously unseen photos by the film's set photographer David Burnett, followed by The Outsiders on Set in 2024, with 254 pages of photos by Nancy Moran. In 2023, Hasbro featured the museum as a landmark in the Tulsa edition of the Monopoly board game. Conde Nast Traveler called it a 'worthy stop,' Southern Living ranked it among the 26 best things to do in Tulsa, and People magazine placed it at number three on its 2024 summer must-do list.

On December 14, 2024, the 98th annual Tulsa Christmas Parade adopted the theme 'Stay Gold, Merry, and Bright,' with O'Connor serving as Grand Marshal. The honor captured something about what the museum has become: not just a shrine to a film or a novel, but a piece of Tulsa's identity, connecting a blue-collar neighborhood to a story about outsiders that resonated across generations. The house at 731 North St. Louis Avenue, built around 1920, briefly famous in 1982, then forgotten, found its second life because one fan decided that some things are worth saving. The Oklahoma Film and Music Office and the Tulsa City Council have lent their support to the project, recognizing what started as personal obsession as a genuine cultural landmark.