Williams, Luther, Field
About this property
Luther Williams Field is a baseball stadium in Macon, Georgia. It was built in 1929 on an earlier ballpark site and is the centerpiece of Central City Park in Macon. It is the home of the Macon Bacon, a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball team in the Coastal Plain League. The original covered grandstand is still in place, though a new tin roof has replaced the former wooden one. A black iron gate surrounds the field, the front of which says "Macon Base Ball Park." Luther Williams Field was home to the Macon Peaches (of the South Atlantic Association, South Atlantic League, and Southern League) on and off from 1929 to the 1980s, and another team by the same name from the Southeastern League in 2003. The Macon Dodgers of the South Atlantic League played at the stadium from 1956 to 1960; the Macon Redbirds in 1983; the Macon Pirates from 1984 to 1987; and the Macon Braves from 1991 to 2002. In 2007, the new South Coast League located its Macon Music franchise at Luther Williams. The team was managed by former major league player Phil Plantier. The General Manager was Ric Sisler, grandson of Baseball Hall of Famer George Sisler. The venue hosted the 1980 and 1982 Atlantic Sun Conference baseball tournaments, won by Georgia Southern and Hardin–Simmons, respectively. Luther Williams Field was used for location shooting in the 1976 film The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings in which it stood in for a fictional Negro league ballpark in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also used as a location in 2012 for two motion pictures, the Harrison Ford movie 42, chronicling the baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and Clint Eastwood's Trouble with the Curve. It was also used to film baseball scenes in the television show Brockmire. The stadium was named for Macon's mayor at its opening, Luther Williams, whose family had migrated from South Wales, UK, in the late 1800s. Having an ardent love for athletics, he worked to bring baseball to Macon and helped get the stadium built. Initially unnamed and costing $60,000, the city council soon named the new park after Williams. The first game held there was on April 18, 1929. Vince Coleman (1983 Redbirds) 2× MLB all Star, 1985 NL Rookie of the Year, 6× NL Stolen Base Leader, Member of the Saint Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. Chipper Jones (1991 Braves), Baseball Hall of Famer and 1999 National League Most Valuable Player Jermaine Dye (1994 Braves), 2005 World Series Most Valuable Player Andruw Jones, Sr. (1995 Braves), nine-time Gold Glove Award winner Media related to Luther Williams Field at Wikimedia Commons Luther Williams Field Views – Ball Parks of the Minor Leagues
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Williams, Luther, Field listed on the National Register?
Williams, Luther, Field was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 2004.
What type of historic resource is Williams, Luther, Field?
Williams, Luther, Field is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Williams, Luther, Field?
The period of significance for Williams, Luther, Field is recorded as the industrial era.
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Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Williams, Luther, Field will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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